Delhi’s ₹2,500 monthly aid for women can’t be spent on liquor, tobacco or online gambling

The Delhi government plans to prevent beneficiaries of the newly approved Delhi Lakshmi Yojana from using their monthly financial assistance to purchase liquor, tobacco products or access online gambling services by introducing a “negative list” of prohibited expenses, officials said.

Under the scheme, eligible women opting for the government’s preferred payment model will receive ₹2,500 every month. Of this, ₹1,500 will be deposited into a recurring deposit (RD) or fixed deposit (FD), while the remaining ₹1,000 will be credited to a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wallet.

Officials said the Digital Rupee wallet will only be usable for approved goods and services, with transactions involving liquor, paan, gutka, cigarettes, bidis, other intoxicants, and online gaming or gambling automatically blocked.

The restrictions are intended to ensure public funds are spent on essential household needs and welfare-related purposes rather than prohibited items.

Officials acknowledged that implementing all the restrictions may be challenging. While the government can disable wallet payments at Delhi’s government-run liquor shops, monitoring purchases of other restricted items and services is still being worked out.

The Digital Rupee (e₹), issued by the Reserve Bank of India, is a central bank digital currency that functions as an electronic version of the Indian rupee for digital payments and value storage.

The Delhi Cabinet recently approved the scheme with a budget allocation of ₹5,110 crore for 2026-27, and more than 1.7 million women are expected to benefit.

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said beneficiaries will have two options: receive ₹1,500 in an RD/FD and ₹1,000 in a CBDC wallet, or deposit the entire ₹2,500 into an RD or FD to encourage long-term savings.

Women aged 21 to 60 years with an annual family income of up to ₹2.5 lakh will be eligible, subject to other conditions. Income tax payers, GST filers, government employees, families with government employees, and women already receiving financial assistance or pensions under other government schemes will not qualify.

Applications for the scheme will open through an online portal on August 1. After district-level scrutiny, the government aims to release the first instalment before Raksha Bandhan.