Polls ahead, Bihar plans Rs 2 lakh over 5 years to 94 lakh poor families

TWO MONTHS after a Bihar caste survey report showed that over a third or 94 lakh of the state’s families earned less than Rs 6,000 a month, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced the Laghu Udyami Yojana under which one member of each family will get Rs 2 lakh over five years. On Tuesday, the Bihar Cabinet sanctioned the first instalment under the scheme, which the party hopes will pay rich dividends in the coming elections.

Under the scheme, the Rs 2 lakh amount will be split into three instalments – the first instalment, amounting to a total outlay of Rs 250 crore for 2022-23, is of Rs 50,000 to be disbursed in February to five lakh families chosen through a computerised randomisation process. The next instalment of Rs 50,000 is set to be disbursed in April to another 20 lakh families amounting to a total outlay of Rs 1,000 crore for 2024-25.

The caste survey report released in November showed that 36.1% of Bihar’s population belongs to Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) and 19.65% to Scheduled Castes – with many now set to benefit from the government scheme, which will be implemented by the state’s industries department. The government said Tuesday that the programme could enable some poor families to engage in forms of self-employment, including small industrial and processing units.

“Rs 2 lakh to a poor family to boost their income is a winning scheme,” a leader of the ruling JD(U) said, admitting that the party’s hope is that after receiving the first instalment of Rs 50,000 before the elections, people would be inclined to go with the same government for getting the remaining Rs 1.5 lakh. “Call it competitive populism or doles, we are seeing it as a scheme that can win us elections.”

A government official said