Nirmala Devi beams with quiet satisfaction as she sits outside her freshly repainted home in Kalyanpur’s Rampura village ahead of the Chhath Puja. She has a reason to celebrate — a ₹10,000 credit under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana recently landed in her bank account as part of a government loan scheme aimed at encouraging women entrepreneurship.
The Nitish Kumar government’s “Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana” aims to provide ₹10,000 each for self-employment to over 12.1 million women, positioning it as a direct counter to the opposition INDIA bloc’s “Mai Behan Maan Yojana,” which promises a monthly stipend of ₹2,500 to eligible women.
Talking about the loan, Nirmala Devi said: “This is a good amount. It will help us expand our business. But the government should also give a higher monthly salary for Asha (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers as promised earlier.”
The ₹10,000 cash transfer—with the potential of an additional ₹2 lakh loan at a later stage — is the latest in Kumar’s series of measures to build a dedicated vote bank among Bihar’s female population. Earlier, Kumar had introduced 50% reservation for women in panchayats, municipalities, and primary teaching jobs, along with a 35% quota in state government positions.
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{{/usCountry}}Article 15(3) of the Constitution provides the legal backing for such special provisions, including quotas, for women. “Nothing in this article shall prevent the state from making any special provision for women and children,” it says.
The Nitish government has also doubled the honorarium of 140,000 beneficiaries under the Jeevika Didi programme and increased the honorarium of anganwadi workers from ₹7,000 per month to ₹9,000 per month, among other women-centric initiatives.
But can these initiatives help Kumar in battling anti-incumbency and the growing demand for change after nearly 20 years of his rule?
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Kumar, who belongs to the Kurmi caste that makes up less than 3% of Bihar’s population, has built a strong vote bank among women.
The liquor ban in Bihar, imposed on April 5, 2016, was another step by Kumar to gain popularity among women voters. “The men in the villages are upset about the high price of liquor due to the ban, but women are happy that they don’t have to physically and mentally suffer with drunk husbands,” said Asha Kumari, a shopkeeper in Darbhanga’s Barheta.
Bansi Gupta, who owns a tea stall at Jatmalpur, said, “We want change. After 20 years, someone else should come for the sake of change,” but added, “my wife says she will vote for Kumar.”
In Rampura’s Ladaura ward, Sunil Kumar Ram, who is a labourer, talked about local politics while his wife Divya Bharti, a beneficiary of ₹10,000 loan, spoke about her plans to set up a poultry farm in the backyard with the fund. A neighbour quipped: “Now, women are so empowered and rich that they are the masters of society.”
The Opposition, however, has raised questions about the schemes. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had criticised the NDA government’s women employment scheme, saying, “What Nitish Kumar has given is a loan. And he will recover it also. But what we are offering ( ₹2,500 monthly) is social justice.”
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On Wednesday, Yadav announced that around 200,000 “community mobilisers” among “Jeevika Didis” will be made permanent if the INDIA bloc comes to power in the state.
CPI (ML) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya indicated that the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) would soon launch a special campaign against the Kumar-led NDA government’s latest sops.
“We have to tell the women voters that ₹10,000 is not an allowance. It is a simple loan. Once the election is over, those who could not spend the amount in business, might have to return it. Also, this money is of little help as rural population reels under severe debt,” he said.
Former DGP-turned-Jan Suraaj candidate RK Mishra in Darbhanga called the sops “bribes” and argued how party founder Prashant Kishor has a more substantive approach towards Bihar’ development. “Nitish Kumar knows that he is losing. That’s why he has planned such measures. But it will not help him.”
Kumar’s social engineering and development planks helped him retain power for two decades. But, experts said, this time the CM faces a tough test and the recent sops may act as his last line of defence.
“These steps have been taken out of frustration when the state is reeling under massive corruption. In his first term, Nitish Kumar had given cycles to girl-students and it was a game-changer. But the ₹10,000 sop is actually a loan. I don’t think this can make a difference, provided the Opposition effectively counters the sops,” said former Bihar home secretary turned political commentator, Afzal Amanullah.