Ramabai Ranveer’s story reflects both the grit of India’s people and the glaring shortcomings of its governments. The 47-year-old widow and mother of two girls in Beed, one of Maharashtra’s poorest districts, recently ran 3 km to win ₹3,000, which she plans to use on her daughters’ textbooks. While Ramabai’s barefoot run earned admiration online, it also painted a grim picture of Indian women struggling to make ends meet despite so many welfare schemes aimed at them. Like most other states, Maharashtra has a number of programmes to support women from modest backgrounds, including Majhi Ladki Bahin and Kanya Bhagyashree. But as the cases of Ramabai and thousands of women recently rendered ineligible for state assistance in West Bengal show, the gap between a scheme’s announcement and implementation is filled with immense pain.
