Higher pensions, business incentives and more: How Nitish Kumar is fortifying his silent support base

As election season dawns upon Bihar, political parties have begun their outreach to this crucial voter segment with promises of welfare schemes, cash support and even business opportunities targeted solely at women.

Why women votes matter for Nitish Kumar

For starters, women are believed to have played a key part in keeping Nitish Kumar in the hot seat for a long tenure. Since first coming to power in 2005, Nitish has carefully cultivated the women's vote.

It was in is tenure as Chief Minister in 2006 when Bihar became the first state to reserve 50 per cent of rural and urban local body seats for women. The same year, he introduced free bicycles for schoolgirls through 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 per cent reservation for women in all state government jobs. Since 2018, under the Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana, a monthly financial assistance has been given to girls until they complete their graduation.

The second factor is more arithmetic. Women formed a major support base for the NDA in the 2020 Assembly elections, a Lokniti-CSDS post-poll analysis showed. As per the survey findings, more women voted for the NDA than men in Bihar. The case was the same across all voter segments and communities, barring only Yadavs and Muslims.

Additionally, more women are coming out to vote in Bihar, a trend seen across the past several elections. Women outvoted men in 167 of the 243 constituencies in the 2020 polls, most of them in northern Bihar, a region which leaned heavily towards the National Democratic Alliance.

In the 2020 polls, women's turnout stood at 60 per cent, compared to 54 per cent for men. In 166 constituencies, women outnumbered male voters. Similar was the trend in 2015 with women voter turnout at 60.4 per cent as compared to 51.1 per cent male voters.

How Nitish Kumar is securing his support base

Nitish, aware of the importance of women's votes in the coming elections, hit the ground running to keep this key bastion intact over three months ago. On June 24, the Bihar Cabinet approved raising monthly pensions for the elderly, widows, and those with disabilities from Rs 400 to Rs 1,100. The first instalment of this hike, totalling more than Rs 1,227 crore, was disbursed on July 11 directly into the accounts of around 1.11 crore beneficiaries of six schemes.

As per government data cited by The Indian Express, approximately 54.5 per cent of these pensioners are estimated to be women.

On July 8, the Bihar Cabinet imposed a domicile requirement on the existing 35 per cent reservation for women in state government jobs. Now, only women who are residents of Bihar can claim the quota, with women from other states competing for the posts through the general category.

On July 30, Kumar increased the monthly honorarium for ASHA workers from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 and doubled the incentives for Mamata (maternal health) workers from Rs 300 to Rs 600 per child delivery.

On August 29, the Cabinet approved the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana to spur women’s self-employment with a Rs 20,000 crore allocation. This was announced in a subsequent Cabinet meeting on September 2. Under this scheme, one woman in every family will receive an initial grant of Rs 10,000 to start an employment-generating activity of her choice. If the beneficiary’s business is running well six months later, she can receive an additional grant of up to Rs 2 lakh to expand it. Officials said the first round of tranches will be credited in September, reports IE.

The government has also said that it will develop local “haat bazaars” for women entrepreneurs to sell their products. The entire scheme is budgeted at Rs 20,000 crore from the state’s Contingency Fund, with the Bihar CM claiming that this programme is meant for broad-based empowerment and will help curb out-migration by creating jobs locally.

Modi pitches in

The Centre, ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has also stepped up its efforts to woo this crucial segment of voters. On September 2, the Prime Minister released Rs 105 crore as initial share capital for the Bihar Rajya Jeevika Nidhi Credit Co-operative Federation Limited. Commonly called the Jeevika Bank, this is a dedicated co-op bank for women’s self-help groups.

Officials said the goal of the initiative was to give rural women, who are linked to Bihar’s Jeevika Self Help Groups (SHGs), easier access to credit at affordable rates. Nitish Kumar implemented the Jeevika programme in 2006 with financial assistance from the World Bank. Today, it has roughly 11 lakh SHGs with 1.4 crore women members.

The Prime Minister's recent outburst against the alleged use of indecent language against his mother, is also seen as aimed at galvanizing the women vote. By appropriating the abuse against him and his mother with an insult to all women of Bihar, the Prime Minister hopes to consolidate women's support in the NDA's power as the alliance looks to retain power in the crucial state.