Taking cue from the impact of women-centric schemes on the result of assembly elections held in various states recently, the Bihar government has announced several sops for women in the last state budget presented before the assembly elections.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented a budget of Rs 3.17 lakh crore for the fiscal year 2025-26 in the state assembly on Monday.

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Transforming Bihar’s education sector has been a key focus area of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Once again, the state government has allocated a major portion of the budget to improve educational infrastructure and quality.

The government has earmarked an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore for Bihar Student Credit Card to help economically weaker students pursue higher education. The government has also doubled the pre-matriculation scholarship to students. The hostel grant for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has also been doubled.

Infrastructure development has taken the center stage. The government has focused on roads, bridges, and public transport to transform connectivity. The government announced that seven new airports will be built, including three Greenfield airports. Flights will start from Purnia within three months.

The finance minister announced that Rs 60,964 crore would be spent on education, Rs 20,335 crore on healthcare, Rs 17,908 crore on urban and rural roads, Rs 17,831 crore on the Home Department, Rs 16,093 crore on rural development, Rs 13,484 crore on energy department, Rs 13,368 crore on social welfare department and other departments. A budget provision of Rs 3,528 crore has been made for agriculture in the year 2025-26. This is 1.11 percent of the total budget.

The government has decided to set up Mahila Haat in Patna and a place for women will be earmarked in the vending zones in all other big cities. The state government will construct a marriage hall in every Panchayat, in a phased manner, for the marriage of poor girls. These facilities will be provided at a very low cost and it will also be operated by women self-help groups.

The government will also build hostels for working women. Pink buses will be operated for women in major cities of the state, in which all the passengers, driver and conductor will be women.

Creating new job opportunities for women, the government has decided to train women as drivers and conductors. The finance minister announced that 33 per cent jobs of driver, conductor and depot maintenance staff of Bihar State Road Transport Corporation will be reserved for women.

To promote self-employment among women, a provision of cash grant will be made for women drivers on purchasing e-rickshaws and two-wheelers for commercial operation. Women vehicle operation training centres will be established in major cities of the state, in which the trainers will also be women.

Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav expressed his disappointment over the annual budget of Bihar. Reacting on the budget provisions for women, he said at least the government should have implemented the RJD’s Mai Behan Maan scheme.

Bihar State Congress President Dr. Akhilesh Prasad Singh termed the budget lifeless, ineffective and contrary to expectations. He said at least in the election year, the government should have focused on generating employment, employment-oriented training for the youth, and reducing inflation.

“Since this is the last budget of the double-engine government, there was a great hope that the people of Bihar would at least get some relief from inflation and unemployment. The budget has been presented in an exaggerated manner. All this is just rhetoric and nothing else,” he said.