In a departure from the Bihar government’s policy of not requiring domicile status for state government jobs, the Nitish Kumar Cabinet on Tuesday approved the application of the domicile rule for the existing 35% quota for women in all government jobs.
This means that women who are not residents of Bihar will not be eligible for government jobs. In the past, the government faced criticism for not applying the domicile criteria during the mass recruitment of teachers. This is the first instance in recent times that the Bihar government has applied the domicile policy.
“A woman who is a resident of Bihar alone will now be able to avail the existing 35% quota in jobs,” state Additional Chief Secretary (Cabinet) S Siddharth told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The decision is significant given that it comes just months before the state heads to the polls and is another attempt by the NDA government to consolidate its “caste-neutral” vote bank of women. The Nitish government had rolled out the 35% quota for women in January 2016. At the time, the JD(U) was in power along with the RJD and the Congress.
To be eligible for domicile status in Bihar, a person should have been a resident of the state for at least three years, own a house or land, or, in the case of women, be married to a resident of the state. A domicile should also have a voter ID card, but it is not a mandatory requirement. Less than 1.57% of the state’s population are state government employees. As of last month, the state had 36,000 women in the police force, and has employed more than 2.5 lakh women teachers since 2007.
“A woman who is a resident of Bihar alone will now be able to avail the existing 35% quota in jobs,” state Additional Chief Secretary (Cabinet) S Siddharth told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The decision is significant given that it comes just months before the state heads to the polls and is another attempt by the NDA government to consolidate its “caste-neutral” vote bank of women. The Nitish government had rolled out the 35% quota for women in January 2016. At the time, the JD(U) was in power along with the RJD and the Congress.
To be eligible for domicile status in Bihar, a person should have been a resident of the state for at least three years, own a house or land, or, in the case of women, be married to a resident of the state. A domicile should also have a voter ID card, but it is not a mandatory requirement. Less than 1.57% of the state’s population are state government employees. As of last month, the state had 36,000 women in the police force, and has employed more than 2.5 lakh women teachers since 2007.
Among the other women-centric measures of state administrations led by Nitish Kumar over the years have been a 50% quota for women in panchayats, raising more than 10 lakh self-help groups, and forming two all-women police battalions.
The demand for domicile reservation flows from Bihar’s economic and social challenges. As per a NITI Aayog report, titled Macro and Fiscal Landscape of the State of Bihar, published this March, the state’s economy is predominantly agrarian, with 49.6% its workforce engaged in agriculture as of 2022-23. Only 5.7% of the workforce has manufacturing jobs, one of the lowest shares in the country. Service and construction jobs make up the rest of the jobs pie and constitute 26% and 18.4% of the workforce, respectively.
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