Patna: The Bihar government has come close to meeting its target of announcing a Rs 10,000 assistance payment for women associated with the JEEViKA programme, but the actual transfer of funds remains stalled for more than 11 lakh beneficiaries due to unresolved KYC issues.
Officials in the rural development department said payments were pending because bank accounts linked to a large number of beneficiaries had incomplete, inconsistent or outdated Know Your Customer (KYC) details. As a result, the assistance has not reached the accounts of 11,10,886 women across the state.
The highest number of pending cases has been reported from East Champaran, where more than 1.11 lakh women are yet to receive the amount. Other districts with large backlogs include Madhubani (76,758), Muzaffarpur (66,043), Darbhanga (53,892) and Katihar (51,091).
Under the scheme announced by the government led by Nitish Kumar, the assistance is to be transferred directly into the bank accounts of women members of self-help groups. However, officials said the process had slowed considerably because many accounts lack Aadhaar linkage, contain discrepancies in names, addresses or dates of birth, or have outdated mobile numbers.
In several cases, payments have also been blocked because accounts have turned dormant — a problem officials say is particularly acute in rural areas, where beneficiaries may not operate their accounts regularly.
Women associated with JEEViKA groups said they had submitted all required documents during group meetings, but updates were not being reflected at the bank level. “We have completed the formalities, but the KYC is still pending because of technical problems at the banks,” one beneficiary said.
District-wise data show the scale of the challenge across the state, with tens of thousands of cases pending in districts such as Patna (40,707), Samastipur (48,112), West Champaran (55,128) and Vaishali (55,111).
Officials said efforts were under way to coordinate with banks to resolve documentation and technical issues, but acknowledged that the backlog could take time to clear. Until then, the promised financial relief for more than 11 lakh rural women remains uncertain, even as the scheme itself moves close to its stated target.
