Bihar’s Development: Myth or Reality? And Who’s It Really For?

Today, November 14, 2025, as counting concludes for the Bihar Assembly elections, the question that hangs over the state is deceptively simple: what does “development” mean in Bihar, and who is it really for? The state went to the polls for all 243 seats, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and other leaders repeatedly emphasising development in their campaigns, even as Bihar continues to face entrenched economic and social challenges that shape both political strategy and public expectation.

Bihar is one of India’s poorest states, where low-wage work, heavy dependence on agriculture, and lack of industrial development have left the state with the lowest per-capita income in the country. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s Handbook of Statistics on Indian States, Bihar’s per-capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) in 2022–23 was ₹38,278, less than half the all-India average. Nearly half of the workforce, 49.6 per cent in 2022–23, is employed in agriculture, forestry, or fishing, while only 5.7 per cent work in manufacturing.

Approximately 32 per cent of citizens are engaged in the service sector, though government data indicate that most hold low-paying jobs in the informal economy. With labour concentrated in low-productivity sectors, many households remain poor. The state’s poor human development indicators exacerbate these challenges: the 2011 Census reported a literacy rate of just 61.8 per cent, with a stark gender gap, 71.2 per cent of men are literate compared with 51.5 per cent of women.

Low female literacy and workforce participation reduce productive potential and slow intergenerational mobility.

Articles such as Making Heroes Out Of People Just Struggling To Survive, has explored how these conditions affect ordinary citizens, showing that repeated policy failures have left many Biharis working hard to survive rather than prospering.

Human development indicators further highlight the state’s challenges. Literacy remains low, particularly among women, and this restricts workforce participation and intergenerational mobility. Stories such as Remember His Face? recount the experiences of a labourer who lost his son during the 2020 Covid lockdown while stranded in Delhi, while Graveyard of Dreams in Bihar: The Story of Soni Kumari portrays the struggle of three orphaned siblings.

Musahars: Never-ending Tales Of Deprivation And Exploitation on the Musahar community shows that they continue to occupy the lowest rung of society, remaining largely excluded from government schemes and broader social progress. Collectively, these accounts illustrate the persistence of poverty despite repeated political references to development.

The 2022 caste-based survey, released in October 2023, added a political dimension to Bihar’s development narrative. The survey mapped the caste and economic status of the state’s 13.07 crore residents, revealing that Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constitute 36.01 per cent of the population, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) 27.12 per cent, Scheduled Castes 19.65 per cent, Scheduled Tribes 1.68 per cent, and forward castes 15.52 per cent. With EBCs and OBCs forming more than 63 per cent of the electorate, caste continues to influence electoral strategy.

Whereas Elections = Ideology noted that political parties use these data to target constituencies, assemble winning combinations, and combine dominant caste groups with SC/ST and forward-caste supporters to create an electoral majority.

Development has also been associated with welfare programmes, which are designed to provide targeted benefits to specific groups. Initiatives such as the Chief Minister Women’s Employment Scheme and JEEViKA aim to improve employment opportunities and social support, particularly for women and economically disadvantaged households, and have been used as evidence of policy delivery in political campaigns.

However, programmes such as land reforms remain largely unimplemented, receiving little attention during elections. Discussions in The ‘Hum’ Factor and other analyses highlight the tension between identity-based recognition and the delivery of meaningful socio-economic change.

The focus of Bihar’s development agenda suggests that the immediate beneficiaries are the numerically dominant EBC/OBC groups, alongside allied SC/ST and forward-caste supporters. While welfare schemes provide targeted support, recognition alone does not guarantee broader socio-economic improvement, as low wages, seasonal migration, and limited opportunities in agriculture and informal work remain common. Reports such as Nowhere To Hide, Mr CM: Poverty Data Proves Nitish Kumar’s Policy Failure and Past, Present, Future: Bihar’s Tryst With Destiny emphasise that structural challenges continue to shape everyday life for many Biharis.

The 2025 elections demonstrate that development functions both as a political narrative and a governance concern. Parties attempt to convert caste-based support into claims of policy delivery, but the effectiveness of these efforts depends on actual implementation.

Coverage in the Outlook's Jungle Raj issue has also underscored that law and order, governance performance, and electoral controversies have influenced voter perception, showing that the contest is not merely numerical but also shaped by whether programmes are perceived as being delivered. If recognition of dominant caste groups is not paired with tangible improvement, development risks being seen primarily as an electoral instrument rather than a measure of progress.

Ultimately, the question of who benefits from development in Bihar remains central to both politics and policy. Welfare programmes target specific caste and economic groups, but broader structural issues, low literacy, dependence on agriculture, and limited industrialisation—continue to affect much of the population.

The outcome of the 243-seat, election will indicate whether recognition of EBC/OBC and allied groups is translated into tangible improvements in living standards, or whether development remains primarily a component of electoral strategy, leaving underlying social and economic challenges largely unaddressed.