'Jeevika Didis' or community mobilisers and contract workers engaged by the state government in Bihar will be absorbed as government employees if the Opposition Mahagathbandhan forms the government in November, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav announced at a press conference in Patna on Wednesday.
Jeevika Didis, he declared, will be paid Rs 30,000 per month, significantly higher than what they are paid currently. In addition, they will be eligible for a special allowance of Rs 2,000 per month for the extra work they are forced to do for the government, he said. An insurance cover up to Rs 5 lakh will also be extended to them, he announced.
The announcement comes a day after chief minister Nitish Kumar claimed to have employed 50 lakh youth in the government and promised to employ 1 crore more in the next five years. Last month, the state's NDA government claimed to have transferred Rs 10,000 to each member of women’s self-help groups (SHGs), estimated to number 1.40 crore in the state.
Jeevika Didis and the SHGs, under the World Bank-aided Bihar Rural Livelihood Mission (BRLM), have constituted a loyal vote-bank for Nitish Kumar. Tejashwi's announcement threatens to make some dent in the support base.
The state currently has about 11 lakh women's SHGs. In December 2024, Tejashwi in his capacity as deputy CM had also promised to give Rs 2,500 under the 'Maai-Bahin Maan Yojna', and increase the state's old age, disability and widow pensions from Rs 400 to Rs 1,500. He had also promised to provide a gas cylinder for Rs 500. Along with this, he is also reiterating his promise of 200 units of free electricity if voted to power.
The new Opposition government will also waive interest payments of the 1.40 crore SHG members in the state on loans taken from the SHGs, Tejashwi announced. On future loans, no interest will be charged for the first two years, he also announced. This will be besides the Rs 2,500 per month or Rs 30,000 a year promised to women under the Maai-Bahin Yojana he had announced earlier.
During his travels across the state, Jeevika Didis met Tejashwi in delegations and apprised him of their service conditions. The RJD had studied the issue at some depth and came up with the plan, he claimed.
While the sops are apparently designed to neutralise the effect of Rs 10,000 transferred to SHG members by the NDA government in September, ostensibly to help start a business, the RJD leader pointed out that even Union home minister Amit Shah had described this amount as ‘seed money’ or loan on which interest would be charged, and accused the NDA government of misleading the women.
Tejashwi, widely perceived as the Opposition’s chief ministerial face, promised that his government would be committed to job security, social security and dignity for women. What Bihar now needs is "economic justice", he declared.
Contract workers in the state have no job security and are terminated at any time without citing reasons, he pointed out. In addition, they are forced to pay 18 per cent GST on whatever payment they receive. Women contract workers are denied even the mandated menstrual leave for two days every month.
Tejashwi vows to fight BJP like a 'true Bihari' amid IRCTC scam chargesThese are regular jobs and the government could have created the posts and appointed them, he pointed out. Instead, agencies were outsourced the work and allowed to hire people on contract for various jobs. If the Mahagathbandhan forms the government, he announced, all such contract workers will be absorbed as government employees.
Among other major announcements were the MAA (Makaan, Anna and Aamdani — house, grains and income) and BETI (Benefit, Education, Training, Income) schemes.
Anticipating the scepticism that his announcements would attract, he declared that even in 2020 his promise to fill up 10 lakh vacancies in the government was met with ridicule. Both Nitish Kumar and the then deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had described it an ‘impossible plan’, he recalled.
Yet, during the 17 months that he and the Opposition were in office, he had regularised 4.5 lakh contract teachers and made fresh appointment of three lakh more. “I do not need a certificate. I have shown that I deliver on my promises and this time too will be no different,” he asserted.
The announcement coming a day before the INDIA bloc is due to address a joint press conference in Patna is meant to corner credit and communicate that the plan was worked out by him and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and not by the INDIA bloc.
