Not all who wander are lost. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar knows this all too well as he undertakes his month-long state-wide social reform campaign, or Samaj Sudhar Yatra, his 13th such journey as CM. Undeterred by criticism, the Janata Dal (United) leader has gone on an overdrive to persuade women to be the “torchbearer” of his social reform crusade and make the ban on alcohol successful.
After coming to power, Nitish Kumar has ensured that 50 per cent of panchayat seats are given to women and, this time too, a record number of young women have won elections, which goes on to show their higher participation in the electoral process.
Bihar had to sacrifice a revenue of Rs 4,000 crore every year from excise but Nitish Kumar convinced the people that liquor sales could not be allowed at the cost of poor families, where per capita income was just Rs 50,547 in comparison to the national average of Rs 135,00 in the year 2020.
Nitish Kumar’s ongoing social reform journey continues to generate enough heat as the principal opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal leaves no opportunity to mock his yatra as a futile attempt to re-establish the JD(U), which came a poor third during the 2020 state assembly elections.
Nitish has undertaken 13 journeys so far, starting from 2005 when he assumed the mantle of chief minister of the state. But unlike the past, this time he has been pressing for social change to eliminate the dowry system, stop child marriages and ensure fool-proof implementation of the anti-liquor policy.
Trained during the JP movement, a socialist to the core, Nitish is a strong believer in Gandhian socialism. His quotes during his rallies are often interspersed with Gandhian ideals.
One among Gandhi’s teachings, prohibition, has been used by Nitish Kumar as a potent weapon to win the hearts of women voters.
His ongoing yatra is one such novel attempt to highlight his government’s unflinching commitment to make the anti-liquor drive successful, though his detractors target him calling the anti-liquor campaign a failure.
Bihar shares a porous border with Nepal, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bangladesh, which makes liquor smuggling easy.
After the month of October, Bihar police has been on overdrive and arrested 4 lakh people involved in the liquor trade.
Thousands of bail pleas in liquor cases are pending in the Patna High court affecting the normal functioning of the courts.
Recent remarks by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana hardly find an echo in Bihar as Nitish Kumar’s journey progresses. The CM speaks of a major crackdown on the liquor mafia, dubbing prohibition as a tool to bring social reform in the state.
Nitish Kumar’s anti-liquor campaign, started in 2016, got a major setback when around 40 people died after consuming spurious liquor. A major liquor cartel is believed to have taken a firm foothold in the state, despite thousands of raids being conducted every month in Bihar.
Nitish Kumar says that violence against women has come down in the state, so did road accidents. To strike a chord with Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom movement, Kumar too started his social reform yatra from West Champaran. The CM’s insistence regarding prohibition stems from the fact that Mahatma Gandhi had persuaded Lord Irwin in 1930 to make it state policy.
Nitish Kumar’s major driving force has been Jeevika Didis, a self-help group consisting of 96 lakh women from across the state, who are empowered to carry out government-sponsored social schemes.
Many Jeevika Didis were earlier into drugs and illegal liquor procuring, but once they were provided training by the state government, they gave the illicit trade and started their own businesses. Speaking about their role in bringing about social change, the CM said in Samastipur that the women of Bihar are more reliable than the men as 98 per cent of the loans availed by women have been paid back.
Nitish Kumar heavily relies on women voters and they have not disappointed him either. Bihar was the pioneer in introducing reservation for women in panchayats, where the government has set aside 50 per cent of the seats for them. Bihar police too has ensured 30 per cent of jobs for women.
Nitish Kumar has already become the longest-serving chief minister of Bihar after Shri Krishna Singh, and now he wants to reserve his place in political history as a CM, who steadfastly advocated for the empowerment of women by strictly enforcing complete prohibition in the state.
In a caste-ridden society like Bihar, Kumar has been working hard to come out of a typecast image and emerge as a leader who thinks about social reforms.
But ally BJP and the opposition have been demanding that the CM should focus on job creation and setting up industries and stopping large-scale migration; this is one area where all past governments have failed to deliver.
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