The problem is that it is hard to pull off in a bigger population like India's. Social stigma doesn't work if all your friends are doing it too. My perspective

The problem is that it is hard to pull off in a bigger population like India's. Social stigma doesn't work if all your friends are doing it too. My perspective is that the problem runs way deeper than this and any kind of social welfare scheme will be abused in India. This is because majority of the tax paying population thinks that they don't get enough for their taxes. This might be somewhat justified because taxes in India can jump quite high (up to 30% of income) without seeing much increase in your net savings in major cities. This is compounded by the fact that a very low fraction of the eligible population actually pays taxes (this is due to most people being employed in the unorganized sector) which leads the government to try to maximize whatever it can get from the ones who actually pay. This is evident in how so many relatively well off people haven't given up their LPG subsidy even after repeated requests by the government.