Bihar’s electoral landscape has always been a study in contrasts – caste arithmetic versus development narratives, rural impulses versus urban aspirations, and in recent years, a quiet yet decisive force shaping outcomes without fanfare: women voters.

As the state moves towards another crucial election season, the conversation cannot remain limited to them as silent voters; it must confront the larger question of whether they are truly stakeholders in the governments they help install.

It is not by chance that Nitish Kumar recently announced a flurry of initiatives, including a domicile policy for government jobs reserved for women. The state had already set aside 35% of government jobs for women in 2016 and introduced a 33% horizontal reservation for women in state engineering and medical colleges in 2021. This followed 50% reservation for women in cooperative societies and 35% in police recruitment.

These steps reflect Nitish’s larger policy of promoting female participation across socio-economic decision-making and governance.

For decades, women in Bihar were largely seen as passive participants in politics. Patriarchal norms often meant the male head of the household decided the family’s vote. In many villages, women’s role ended with accompanying relatives to the polling booth, their choice subsumed into the collective will of the family. This translated into a stark gender gap in voting.

For nearly five decades after Independence, the difference between........

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