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By Shivaji Sarkar<\/strong><\/p>\n Bihar Freebie Trap<\/strong><\/p>\n Bihar\u2019s 2025 elections are shaping up as a decisive moment for the state\u2019s future. Once again, the political narrative is dominated by promises of cash transfers, subsidies, and giveaways. It\u2019s being interpreted as bribe as well. Yet, beneath the loud talk of welfare lies an uneasy truth \u2014 Bihar\u2019s real problems remain unsolved. Bihar is in hurry. None knows the wisdom of setting 2047 for its development \u2013 that\u2019s over two decades later. Can\u2019t it be in three years?<\/p>\n Unemployment is high, industries are scarce, and migration continues unchecked, the World Bank mentions in its various reports. Young graduates, unable to find work at home, still board trains to Delhi and Mumbai in search of a livelihood. The state\u2019s growth story has stalled because politics has been reduced to short-term appeasement rather than long-term planning.<\/p>\n If Bihar is to break free from this cycle, political parties must shift focus \u2014 from freebies to factories, from subsidies to skills, and from caste arithmetic to capital investment. A difficult job in an adverse situation. Every election, Bihar\u2019s leaders announce giveaways that sound generous but come with a heavy cost. Subsidies for electricity, farm loans, or direct cash transfers may provide relief \u2014 but they do not build capacity. Lacking vision, they do not create jobs, factories, or self-sustaining growth.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s dependency on central grants and outmigration continues because its political imagination has stalled. Freebies have become a substitute for governance \u2014 a political shortcut that delays the inevitable need for reform.<\/p>\n The Rs 10,000 to each woman in the state, announced by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar needs at least Rs 7,500 crore taxpayers\u2019 money for the first instalment. Mockingly it is said pick up from one to pay the other. There are other freebies that cost Rs 33000 crore.<\/p>\n It is not easy to manage with one of the highest debt ratio. Recent reports from NITI Aayog show Bihar\u2019s debt-to-GSDP ratio at 39.6 percent in 2022-23, higher than the median state.\u00a0The Bihar government\u2019s anticipated public debt for the financial year 2025-26 is estimated at\u00a0t Rs 3,53,819.11 crore. The debt has reportedly touched Rs 4.06 lakh crore.<\/p>\n The incumbent National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Nitish Kumar\u2019s JD(U) and the BJP, is defending its governance record, highlighting past job creation (claiming 10 lakh jobs and 40 lakh employment opportunities provided) and various central and state welfare schemes.<\/p>\n The Opposition (Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led INDIA bloc) is not behind. Tejashwi Yadav has promised to bring a law to ensure a\u00a0government job for at least one member in every household\u00a0if the alliance is voted to power. He also pledged 10 lakh government jobs, an unemployment allowance, and a domicile-based job policy.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched several youth-focused initiatives and transferred funds to women\u2019s accounts, which the BJP hopes will translate into votes. Other players like political strategist Prashant Kishor, through his Jan Suraaj campaign, has also focused on issues of employment, education, and governance, aiming to attract disillusioned voters. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also entered the fray, promising to implement its Delhi-Punjab model of governance focused on education and healthcare.<\/p>\n Vote management is the key issue. But the realities are different. While official unemployment rates (around 3-5 percent) might appear standard, these figures are misleading. The true picture reveals a very low Worker Population Ratio (WPR) (around 51.6 percent for ages 15 and above) and low labour force participation, indicating a large portion of the working-age population is neither employed nor actively seeking work, often due to a lack of available opportunities. Only 8.7 percent of workers are in regular wage\/salaried jobs, the lowest in the country.<\/p>\n Bihar has historically been one of India\u2019s poorer states, with millions still living in poverty. The lack of formal jobs and industries within the state forces thousands of skilled professionals and labourers to migrate. Addressing this outmigration is a major plank for opposition parties.<\/p>\n The World Bank (WB) studies over two decades paint a sobering picture of Bihar\u2019s persistent structural weaknesses \u2014 poverty, inequality, weak governance, and poor infrastructure \u2014 that continue to constrain growth. Despite visible progress since 2005, Bihar remains one of India\u2019s poorest states, with rural poverty and consumption inequality showing little improvement.<\/p>\n Infrastructure gaps like health or education lag behind national standards, reinforcing the cycle of backwardness.<\/p>\n The World Bank recommends boosting Bihar\u2019s agricultural efficiency through better irrigation, climate-smart farming, crop diversification, and improved market access to raise farmer incomes. It also stresses expanding rural livelihoods\u2014especially for women, and strengthening human capital through greater investment in health, education, and social protection. It has flagged governance and a lingering negative image that discourage investment.<\/p>\n Some interventions like flood management\u2014through the Kosi Basin Development Project\u2014and targeted reforms in education, health, and public finance have supported poverty reduction and improved resilience. The state needs sustained institutional reform and inclusive growth strategies. The NITI Aayog hasn\u2019t issued a separate vision document for Bihar but drives development through key initiatives like the Aspirational Districts and Blocks Programmes, targeting health, education, agriculture, and infrastructure in each district.<\/p>\n Bihar is like the proverbial elephant to the blind. It\u2019s known as the cradle of Indian republic. Few realise that Bihar itself remains a republic unto its own. Improving the state and its people requires detailed study of the state, its people, varied regions, culture and prescription targeted to the state alone. Migration is almost a 200-year problem for its poverty, lack of opportunities and crime.<\/p>\n Munger, for instance, is known for its gun-making culture since the time of Mir Qasim. It cannot be wished away as a law-and-order problem. The skill of the locals has to be recognised and the industry reorganised may be for an international market of \u201cswadeshi\u201d fancy arms. Similar out of the box solutions could turn Bihar into building a self-sustaining economy.<\/p>\n Political parties have to learn to float ideas if they really want to lead. The government mechanisms have to come out of their \u201cfile remarks\u201d, if the state has to be a change agent. And finally, the country or Bihar needs a closer date for development say around 2028 for Vikasit Bharat and certainly not 2047, when most of those in Bihar today would not be there. \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Shivaji Sarkar Bihar Freebie Trap Bihar\u2019s 2025 elections are shaping up as a decisive moment for the state\u2019s future. Once again, the political narrative is dominated by promises of cash transfers, subsidies, and giveaways. It\u2019s being interpreted as bribe as well. Yet, beneath the loud talk of welfare lies an uneasy truth \u2014 Bihar\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-272739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}