With the Bihar Assembly elections around the corner, the Nitish Kumar-led state government has opened its coffers, focusing on women and the youth through a series of new schemes.
- Unemployment allowance for the youth: Rs 1,000 per month for two years for graduates and those who have completed Class 12 but remain unemployed, as an extension of the Mukhyamantri Nishchay Swayam Sahayata Bhatta Yojana. The government announced this on September 18.
Cost: With an estimated 12 lakh youth expected to benefit, the government is set to spend over Rs 2,800 crore over the next two years on this scheme.
- Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana for women entrepreneurs: Its first instalment of Rs 10,000 each will be handed over on September 22. Another 50 lakh women entrepreneurs will also benefit from the scheme in later instalments, and in six months, the government will grant Rs 2 lakh to each entrepreneur after assessing their business initiatives.
Cost: The immediate first instalment to be given to 50 lakh women is set to cost the exchequer Rs 5,000 crore. The total cost of the scheme is Rs 21,000 crore.
- Other programmes recently announced: Rs 5,000 crore to provide 125MW of free electricity to 1.89 crore consumers, Rs 9,300 crore in additional expenditure on raising the Social Security Scheme pensions from Rs 400 to Rs 1,100 per month for 1.11 crore beneficiaries, Rs 800 crore on a Rs 5,000 clothing allowance each to 16 lakh construction workers, and raised honorariums to Jeevika, Anganwadi and ASHA workers.
All this is expected to raise the government’s annual expenditure by Rs 40,000 crore. The state’s annual revenue is about Rs 56,000 crore, with its annual Budget standing at Rs 3.2 lakh crore in 2025-26. Its debt-to-GDP ratio in 2025-26 is 37%, up from around 30%-32% in 2021-22 and 2022-23. According to a CAG report, Bihar spent nearly 22% of its revenue receipts on interest payments and loan repayments in 2022-23.
Women, a key constituency
Since coming to power in 2005, Nitish Kumar has carefully cultivated his support among women voters, something that has helped him stay in power since then. As of January this year, women account for 48% of Bihar’s electorate.
Under him, in 2006, Bihar became the first state to reserve 50% of rural and urban local body seats for women. The same year, he introduced the Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana, which provides a cash subsidy to female students enrolling in the ninth grade to purchase a bicycle. In 2016, the Nitish government also announced a 35% reservation for women in all state government jobs. Since 2018, financial assistance has been provided to girls until they complete their graduation, under the Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana.
The latest move to help women entrepreneurs is in line with this and the government has decided to prominently showcase the event at which money will be handed over to them on September 22. In a letter to all 38 district magistrates (DMs), the Rural Development Department on Thursday said: “At 11 am on September 22, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would transfer Rs 10,000 each to 50 lakh women entrepreneurs enrolled with Jeevika self-help groups. The programme would be run live down to the block and village levels.” The DMs have also been asked to ensure the event is “celebrated like a festival” by Jeevika workers, who act as facilitators for self-help groups.
This scheme is being seen as a counter to the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) promise to launch a “Mai Bahan” scheme of Rs 2,500 monthly allowance for a woman in each family.
While the scheme granting monthly allowances to unemployed youth was already providing Rs 1,000 per month for two years to 8.19 lakh beneficiaries between 18 and 25 years who have completed Class 12, the expanded scheme will now also include an estimated 4 lakh graduates between 20 and 25 years. The scheme was initially launched in October 2016.
Announcing the expansion of the scheme, Kumar on September 18 said on X: “I am pleased to inform that the Mukhyamantri Nishchay Swayam Sahayata Bhatta Yojana… has been expanded. The benefit of the scheme, currently being given to intermediate pass youths, has now been extended to unemployed graduate youths who have passed in arts, science, and commerce streams.” The CM said he believed beneficiaries would utilise the allowance to “acquire necessary training” and to “prepare for competitive examinations”.
As per the 2011 Census, those aged 20 to 24 accounted for 8% of the population, and were projected to make up 9.9% by 2026.
However, these large-scale doles just ahead of the Assembly elections have drawn criticism from the Opposition. RJD national spokesperson Nawal Kishore said, “The NDA government’s decision to announce DBT to social security pensioners, farmers, women, labourers and students just before elections is an acceptance of its failures on development … The two-decade-old government is not expected to make announcements, but answer for its failure on employment, migration, poverty and minimal agro-industrial development … Opposition parties like the RJD have the right to make promises and announcements … Under its pressure, the NDA is making announcements to overcome anti-incumbency.”
However, JD(U) national general secretary Manish Verma said the schemes showed the government’s “commitment to the people”. “In a welfare state, it is the duty of the government to initiate welfare measures for people … It is not fair to call them doles, it is the government’s response to people’s expectations … All the schemes the RJD has been talking about have already been successfully implemented by the Centre or NDA-ruled state governments.”
BJP national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan said the recent announcements were in “consonance with the welfare paradigm of the NDA government”. “Our goal is to reach out to the last disadvantaged person. But at the same time, we have been taking due care of fiscal management,” he said.