Tejashwi Yadav Promises Government Staff Status for Jeevika Didis, Contractual Workers in Bihar

Patna, Oct. 22 2025 — In a major pre-poll announcement ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, the leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, pledged to regularise thousands of contract workers and community mobilisers under the state’s rural livelihoods programme. 

The Core Promise

Yadav announced that the women working as “Didis” under the state-run “Jeevika” programme (the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project) will be granted permanent government-employee status if his alliance takes power. 

These community mobilisers will be given a monthly salary of ₹30,000. 

In addition, the proposal includes loan-interest waivers for these workers and interest-free credit support for two years. 

Yadav also promised that all contractual workers engaged in various state government departments will be made permanent employees. 

Context & Political Significance

The announcement comes against the backdrop of the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar, where employment and job-security have emerged as key campaign issues. 

The “Jeevika Didis” are women community workers associated with the state’s rural self-help group (SHG) programmes; their role includes mobilisation, bookkeeping, and supporting grassroots women’s groups. 

Yadav argued that these workers have been under-recognised and under-paid despite their work, and that regularising their status is a matter of “dignity and stability.” 

Reactions & Considerations

The ruling coalition in Bihar (the National Democratic Alliance) criticised the promise, calling it a pre-poll “sop” that may be economically challenging to fulfil. 

Analysts point out that this is a sizeable financial commitment—permanentising large numbers of contract staff with a salary hike implies long-term fiscal implications for the state. 

The legal/administrative framework for absorbing contract workers into permanent roles, creating sanctioned posts, and revising salary structures remains to be clarified.

What It Means

If implemented, this would mark one of the most ambitious labour-welfare-led poll promises in Bihar’s recent history. It signals a shift toward formal job security for workers who have until now operated in precarious conditions. It could reshape the voters’ calculus—especially among women workers, self-help groups and contract-based government employees.

The key question: whether the promise is feasible and whether the incoming government (if this alliance wins) will follow through with the administrative and financial architecture needed to deliver on the promise.