The Rashtriya Janata Dal has announced pre-election sops for women voters to counter those offered by Bihar's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal United alliance.
The sops include assurances that women employed as 'Jeevika didis' will have their jobs - currently on contract - made permanent and salaries will be raised to Rs 30,000 per month. Also, interest will be waived on outstanding loans and interest-free credit offered till 2027.
The 'didis', the RJD said further, will be provided with an additional allowance of Rs 2,000 and the government will ensure insurance coverage worth Rs 5 lakh for all their cadres.
The offer included a swipe at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's administration for the "injustice that has been done to the didis". Yadav declared, "Work in villages or cities is not possible without 'Jeevika didis'. But they don't get anything... it is our responsibility, since this government doesn't cater to them."
"The suffering of the people does not affect the corrupt officials."
Bihar is spearheading a World Bank-aided Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project that is locally known as 'Jeevika', with the objective of social and economic empowerment of the rural poor.
Women associated with the project are called 'Jeevika didis'.
The promise was met with scorn by the BJP. The ruling party asked how the RJD could fulfill the promise of generating nearly three crore jobs, and said the poll 'guarantee' "proves illiteracy".
Women - who number around 3.5 crore and are traditionally a Nitish Kumar vote bank - will play a key role in this election, as they did in 2020. Five years ago the BJP-JDU swept 60.5 per cent of seats in which women voters outnumbered men; that translated to 72 of the state's 243 seats.
It makes sense for the RJD and the opposition alliance, i.e., the Mahagathbandhan, which includes the Congress and others, to want to pick up as many votes from women as possible.
Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking at a rally in Saran, once RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav's stronghold, ripped into his rivals over the "misleading" promise of one government job to every family.
"There are 2.8 crore families in Bihar and around 20 lakh people have government jobs... Now, Tejashwi Yadav promised he will give government jobs to 2.6 crore families. But, to provide so many jobs, Rs 12 lakh crore is needed, which is four times the budget of Bihar," he said.
"This is a completely baseless and misleading promise to get votes," he raged.
On the topic of sops for women, the BJP-JDU alliance has offered its own, including Rs 10,000 under the Mai Bahin Maan Yojana and increased monthly social security payouts for widows - from Rs 400 to Rs 1,400 - and 50 per cent quotas in local administrative and civic bodies.
The outgoing government has also raised honorariums for 95,000 ASHA and 4,600 MAMTA healthcare workers, and offered reduced interests
However, the Rs 10,000 offer has been criticised by the opposition as 'bribes for votes'. "They distributed Rs 10,000 under the Mai Bahin Maan Yojana for the women of Bihar... but this is a bribe. This is a loan, Amit Shah himself said it. This means that they will recover this money."
Voting for the Bihar election will take place on November 6 and November 11.
Results will be declared November 14.
