In a historic judgment championing women's empowerment, the Bihar government on Tuesday approved a 35% reservation for women who are state domiciles across all the categories of direct recruitment in government jobs.
The clearance took place in a cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The one-hour meeting cleared 43 major proposals altogether, and the women's reservation policy ranked as a major breakthrough.
As per the government's order, this reservation would be granted only to women who are permanent residents of Bihar. Women candidates who are not residents of the state would not be given this quota in Bihar government jobs.
The officials said this step is part of the government's overall strategy to empower local women by boosting their representation in the public sector employee base, thus supporting inclusive governance.
The move is being generally seen as a pre-election strategic move by the Nitish Kumar government to increase the representation of women in the state administration and see to it that the dividends of affirmative action accrue to women in Bihar.
Besides the policy of reservation, the state cabinet has also given the go-ahead to establish the Bihar Youth Commission. The new commission will work on upgrading employment opportunities and encouraging skill development among the youth of the state—a population increasingly at the heart of the state's electoral politics.
These two major decisions—the women's reservation and the formation of the Youth Commission—are interpreted as strategic moves on the part of the ruling government ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, when both the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Grand Alliance are competing to win over women and young voters.
Among the 43 proposals cleared in the cabinet meeting, the road construction department received maximum numbers with 14 clearances. The agriculture department got six proposals. Four were also cleared for the finance department, three for the revenue and land reforms department, and two each for the law, health, SC & ST welfare, and general administration departments.
Other ministries with accepted proposals are food and consumer affairs, cabinet secretariat, environment, forest and climate change, education, energy, rural development, rural works, Panchayati Raj, social welfare, and animal husbandry and fisheries—with a proposal each.
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