Direct approach

A new direct cash transfer scheme as well as decades of women-centric programmes yield an electoral windfall for the ruling alliance in Bihar

- SATYAM KUMAR

THE RECENTLY concluded elections to the Bihar legislative assembly need to be seen from a gendered perspective, and for solid reasons: at 71. 77 per cent, the turnout of female voters in the election is the highest since 1951, and is nearly 10 per cent higher than that of male voters. Women’s votes are 14 per cent more than men’s in seven of the state’s 38 districts. Women voters outnumbered men in at least 130 of Bihar’s 243 assembly constituencies. Compared to the 2020 state election, there were 4.4 million more women voters this time, according to the Election Commission of India data.

Experts attributed the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s landslide victory to this high turnout of women voters. NDA won 114 of the 130 constituencies where women voters were more than male voters. Political analysts believe that women-centric programmes of the state government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar drove women voters to polling booths to vote for the government.

The scheme that has turned out to be the decisive factor is the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, declared just before the elections. The direct cash transfer scheme offers a support of up to ₹2.10 lakh to aspiring woman entrepreneur. To begin with, the government transferred ₹10,000 as seed money to 15.1 million women's accounts. The beneficiaries constituted around 42 per cent of the state's women voters.