She Voter: The Game Changer In Bihar Elections

Sita Kumari, 29, lives in a Dalit settlement in Sultanpur village, a few kilometres from Hajipur in Bihar. She was in the second year of an undergraduate course when she quit her studies because there were no job prospects for women in the remote village where she lived. Her husband is a graduate, but the onslaught of unemployment compelled him to work as a daily wager. She has been helping him by doing odd jobs, but together they never had enough. And now they need more as she is expecting a child.

It’s been a few days since Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) announced that if the party comes to power in the upcoming state Assembly elections to be held in October-November, Rs 2,500 will be deposited in the accounts of women in the age group of 18-60 every month. When asked if that amount would help Sita Kumari and her husband sail through, she says: “It’s been a pattern. All political parties announce populist women-centric schemes and offer doles when elections approach. But no one talks about generating actual jobs on the ground, especially for women. If they really care about women, like they say they do, they should talk about jobs.” At the end of the conversation, she takes a jibe at the government and says: “If I have a daughter, I will ensure that she finishes her education so that she can find a job and won’t have to depend on government doles.”

The Bihar Assembly elections are a few months away but parties across the political spectrum are trying to woo women voters by making a flurry of promises and keeping them at the centre of their campaign. The women, after all, constitute almost 50 per cent of the vote bank. As per the 2024 Lok Sabha election data, among the 7.64 crore voters in the state, four crore are men and 3.64 crore are women. While the average voting percentage of men was 53 per cent, for the women, the figure was much higher—59.4 per cent.

After the RJD—a part of the INDIA bloc—announced the Mai-Behan Maan Yojana, political pundits expect the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to come up with a similar scheme for women. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) launched the ‘Mahila Samvad’ campaign to connect and inform women about welfare measures being taken by the state government for their empowerment. The CM also unveiled a substantial pre-election welfare measure—a near-three-fold increase in social security pensions for more than one crore of the state’s elderly, widowed and disabled citizens. The monthly payout—increased from Rs 400 to Rs 1,100—is scheduled to begin in July, just as the electoral campaign gains momentum. The scheme will cost the exchequer an additional Rs 921.4 crore annually but the implementation of the scheme may help the party have an edge in terms of vote arithmetic.

The other welfare schemes initiated by the CM include 35 per cent reservation for women in government jobs. In the last five years, 9.35 lakh government job vacancies have been announced. They aim to increase this number to 12 lakh in 2025. As per the reservation policy, the number of women recruited to these jobs comes to 3.27 lakh.

These are the kind of schemes that work for women voters, says Soha Devi, who lives in Bhojpur district. “We don’t want incentives in the name of assistance or social security. I have three daughters. I am educating them by working as a labourer so that they can get a job. How will Rs 2,500 per month help? This money will get over, but jobs are forever,” she says.

Shahina Praveen, a social worker associated with the Bihar Hunger Project, says that schemes like the RJD’s Mai-Behan Maan Yojana take away women’s rights. “Political parties are promoting a trend that increases our greed for money. By offering Rs 2,500, neither will women become independent nor will they become empowered. You are compelling women to feel obliged to vote for you so that they won’t talk about equal rights and ask questions.” She also objects to associating words like “respect” and “help” with these kinds of schemes.

However, a relook into Assembly elections held recently shows that these women-centric doles have helped political parties win elections.

The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh launched the Mukyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana on March 5, 2023, promising a handout of Rs 1,000 per month to women residents of the state aged from 21 to 60. The initial budget set aside for the scheme stood at Rs 8,000 crore. The scheme was an instant hit, and within a few months, over 1.3 crore women enrolled in the first tranche starting June 2023. The state government later raised the amount under Ladli Behna Yojana to Rs 1,250 per month and promised to hike it to up to Rs 3,000 in tranches over a period of time. Polling in the state was at an all-time high of 76.2 per cent and the BJP won 163 seats in the 230-member state Assembly.

Pollsters data shows that almost 50 per cent of the women voters gave their mandate to the ruling BJP. This was almost 10 percentage points more than the Opposition Congress and six percentage points higher compared to male voters. Experts say schemes like these are the main reasons why former MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan managed to beat anti-incumbency for more than 18 years. The scheme still continues and 1.29 crore women have been receiving Rs 1,250 per month.

Modelled on the lines of Ladli Behna Yojana, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde launched the Ladki Bahin scheme in August 2024, with the aim of providing Rs 1,500 to 2.5 crore women in the state each month. Maharashtra has 4.4 crore women voters out of which 2.5 crore women received five instalments of Ladki Bahin before voting on November 20, 2024. The projected budget of the scheme amounted to Rs 36,000 crore. It proved to be a game-changer for the ruling Mahayuti alliance—in a landslide victory, it won 235 out of the 288 seats.

The Jharkhand Assembly elections were held in the same month—in November 2024. The state government launched the Mukhyamantri Maiya Samman Yojana, aimed at providing financial assistance of Rs 2,500 per month to economically weaker women in the age group of 18-50 across the state. In the run-up to the elections, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led INDIA bloc had promised to increase the amount from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500. The scheme played an important role in the victory of the INDIA bloc, which won 56 of the 81 Assembly seats in the state. The women voters increased by 14 per cent, making their numbers almost the same as their male counterparts—of total 2.60 crore voters, 1.31 crore were male, while 1.28 crore were female. The trend was visible in the first phase when voting took place in 43 Assembly seats in the state. Out of these 43 seats, women voters increased in 37 seats in comparison to the 2019 Assembly elections. As per the figures, 69.1 per cent of women and 64.2 per cent of men voted in the election. It was believed that one of the reasons for the increase in women voters was the Maiya Samman Yojana.

The BJP promised Rs 2,500 to women if it wins the Delhi Assembly elections. The scheme was named Mahila Samriddhi Yojana and was launched on Women’s Day. The BJP registered victory in the February 5, 2025, Assembly elections, winning 48 of the 70 seats and ending the Aam Aadmi Party’s 10-year rule in the national capital.

The scheme of the RJD in Bihar is a copy-paste formula, launched with the aim of winning the Assembly election. But why is there a need to bring such schemes in a bid to corner the women vote bank? “The poor are remembered just before the election. And this is not new,” says economist Jean Dreze.

“If you look at these sums in the context of social security, these are not substantial amounts. Before implementing the Maiya Samman Yojana in Jharkhand, they should have made sure that the amounts received under the old-age pension and the pension given to primitive tribes should have been increased to that of the scheme. They should have empowered them first. They receive just Rs 1,000.”

Although Dreze believes such schemes to be beneficial for women and their economic independence, he feels there is a scope of improvement in social security schemes that are already provided to women. He says there is no doubt that announcing schemes like these before an election is meant to gain women’s votes.

Divya Gautam, a researcher at BITS Pilani, asks why women are restricted to getting reservations in jobs and monetary assistance. Why are they not placed in any decision-making committee? Why are they not given equal representation in state Assemblies and political parties?

“In Bihar, women get reservations in jobs, but they have negligible representation on committee boards. All parties agreed on women’s reservation of 33 per cent in Assemblies and Parliament, but why don’t they distribute tickets according to it? Not a single political party gives equal representation. Like men, why don’t women become spokespersons for political parties? There are many such issues which show words and actions of political parties are not consistent with each other,” she says.

In 2023, the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in Parliament, which promised 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state Assemblies. Although it has not been enacted into law yet, all parties have agreed to give representation to women. But it is surprising that in Bihar, the Congress and the BJP did not field a single woman candidate in the Lok Sabha election. Of the 40 Lok Sabha seats, the NDA gave tickets to only 10 per cent women, and the INDIA bloc had given tickets to only 15 per cent women. Similarly, in the Jharkhand Assembly election held last year, out of 81 seats, the NDA (BJP, AJSU, and JDU) gave tickets to 15 women, and the INDIA bloc (JMM, Congress, and RJD) gave tickets to only 10 women. That means only 18.5 per cent and 12.3 per cent of women were fielded by the two alliances. In Maharashtra’s 288 assembly seats, 10.1 per cent of the candidates were women from the INDIA bloc and nine per cent were from the NDA. In Delhi’s 70 Assembly seats, 7.1 per cent of the candidates were women from the BJP and 12.9 per cent from AAP.

Even though the Bill promising 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and the Assemblies has been cleared, the statistics of the Assembly elections suggest that the rights provided to women by political parties remain on paper.

Md Asghar Khan is senior correspondent from Jharkhand

This article is part of Outlook Magazine's July 11, 2025 issue, Making Bombing Great Again. It appeared in print as 'The She Voter'.