It is time women authored the political script in Bihar

WHY MUST STRUCTURAL EMPOWERMENT BE REPACKAGED AS BENEVOLENCE AND DEMANDED BACK AS LOYALTY? EMPOWERMENT WAS NOT A GIFT. IT WAS A NEGOTIATION

- Shubhrastha

Over 35 million women constitute nearly half of Bihar's electorate. More than 1.4 lakh women currently hold office in panchayats, enabled by the state's pioneering 50% reservation in local bodies. Bihar set a national precedent in 2016 by reserving 35% of government jobs for women, significantly increasing female representation across classrooms, police stations, and district administrations. The Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana has facilitated mobility and access for over 9 million schoolgirls since 2007 — transforming aspiration into momentum.

But Bihar's women are far from passive beneficiaries. They are the architects of the state's daily functionality: the Jeevika didis running microcredit ecosystems, the Anganwadi workers who anchor maternal and child welfare, the Asha workers navigating floodplains with registers and resolve. And in classrooms, teacher didis cycling into villages with the promise of change.

Yet, female authorship remains largely unacknowledged in the political script of Bihar's growth story. None of the much-touted women-centric structural interventions and policies in Bihar is bereft of women's participation. The liquor prohibition movement, later co-opted as a political victory, was rooted in village-level mobilisations led by women. Bicycle Yojana emerged from the collectively articulated pain of ambitious girls who dropped out of school. Every scheme, now articulated in a language of political philanthropy, was first seeded in the cerebral and collective consciousness of women.