Bihar Elections: Tejashwi's 'Govt Job for Every Household' Promise Fails Math

Ahead of Assembly elections in Bihar, the clamour around jobs and unemployment has reached new highs. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav announced providing a government job to every household, which does not have one, within 20 days if his government comes to power. “In 20 months, there will be no family that will not have a government job,” he declared. However, is Tejashwi’s promise even feasible on the ground? How many households are there in Bihar? How many jobs will the administration have to create in order to fulfill this promise? Let’s take a look at the math. According to Bihar’s caste-based census 2022-23, the state's total population is over 13.07 crore. There are 2.76 crore families living in the state. At the same time, Bihar houses nearly 20.5 lakh government employees, including central government employees—comprising barely 1.57 percent of the state's population. Even if these employees are considered to be from separate families, Tejashwi will still have to provide jobs to 2.55 crore families. If Tejashwi is to fulfill his promise, his government will have to increase the number of government jobs by 13 times, which will also increase the government's expenditure on salaries proportionately.In the 2025-26 budget, the Bihar government estimated an expenditure of Rs 51,690 crore on salaries alone. Multiplying this by 13 will amount to Rs 6.71 lakh crore — more than double the state's total budget of Rs 3.16 lakh crore for 2025-26. Prof. Naval Kishore Chaudhary, economist and former Principal of Patna College, labelled Tejashwi's announcement "a political stunt" and asserted that it was "impossible to fulfill."He told The Quint, "There are about 3 crore families in the state. That many posts are not even sanctioned, forget about vacancies. Secondly, even if you create posts, there should be a rationale behind it. It will put an additional burden on the state treasury, which will destroy the state's economy."However, DM Diwakar, former Director of the AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies in Patna, believes this is possible. He said, "The expenditure on basic infrastructure (roads, electricity, etc.) has already been incurred. The budget that would have been used for that will now remain, and it can be re-allocated for this purpose.""When development truly begins, it will be self-reliant and will generate funds on its own. There will be no need to do anything separately for it," Diwakar added. Tejashwi Yadav has set a goal of providing jobs to all families within 20 months of forming his government. However, experts say this is extremely difficult to achieve in such a short time.Prof. Chaudhary argued, "On the one hand, government departments are cutting jobs in the name of reform. In such a situation, money can't be distributed simply by giving jobs. What work will be expected from those who are given jobs? While there are no legal restrictions, is this even sustainable?""How will you implement this? Where is the action plan? Just setting a target won't do it. The public should ask for a blueprint. This is like going to the sun," Chaudhary added.Presenting this year's budget, Bihar's Finance Minister Samrat Choudhary stated that a total of 4,27,866 appointments have been made in the government sector in 2024-25, while recruitment for 23,707 positions is underway. Around 1.4 lakh new appointments are expected in 2025-26.So an average 3 lakh government jobs were provided over two years (2024-25 and 2025-26). Even if Tejashwi Yadav creates 3 lakh new jobs every year after coming to power, it will take him 85 years to provide employment to every member of a family without a government job.However, Tejashwi claims that he provided 5 lakh jobs in the 17 months (August 2022 to January 2024) that his party was in power. According to this, 29,000 jobs were created each month. If his government continues to create jobs at this pace, it would still take him 73 years to fulfill his promise.Diwakar, however, contended that even if the target cannot be met within 20 months, it will still change the discourse on development in Bihar and stop the state from moving towards privatisation."It depends on the political intention of the government. If the government has the intention, then it will reprioritize its budget. The budget won't remain the same and will eventually be phased out," he posited.According to Bihar's Economic Survey 2024-25, released in February, the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) advertised a total of 4,85,138 posts from 2020-21 to September 30, 2024. The highest number of vacancies were advertised in 2023-24, for 4,29,015 posts. Of these, candidates were recruited for 2,23,153 posts.Till September 30, 2024, the Commission had received 2,00,592 applications for 3,420 advertised posts and only 65 candidates were selected.The Bihar Technical Services Commission (BTSC) announced 43,745 vacancies from 2019-20 to 2023-24, of which 16,625 candidates were selected. In 2024-25, 638 candidates were selected as of September 30.The Commission conducts examinations for Group 'B' and 'C' jobs with grade pay less than Rs 4800.Excluding the 2024-25 figures, on average, the BPSC has announced 1,21,284 vacancies from 2020-21 to 2023-24. However, the average number of vacancies advertised by the BTSC over five years is only 5,468.From 2021-22 to September 2024, 6,432 police officers were recruited through the Bihar Police Subordinate Services Commission. In the three years from 2021-22 to 2023-24, the Central Constable Selection Board advertised 27,846 positions and recruited 27,204 candidates.On the basis of these figures, it can be said that achieving the target of providing government jobs to every family in Bihar in 20 months is not going to be easy.More than 2.5 lakh teaching positions are vacant in Bihar. The state government disclosed this information to the Union Ministry of Education on 1 April 2025. In its annual action plan report for Samagra Shiksha, the Bihar government stated:2,08,784 posts are vacant in primary schools.36,035 teacher posts are vacant at the secondary level.There are 33,035 vacant posts of teachers in senior secondary level schools.Apart from this, as per the posts sanctioned by the state, 31 percent teaching posts are vacant in SCERT and 19.69 percent teaching posts are vacant in DIET.Earlier, on March 3, while listing the government's achievements during the Budget, the finance minister Choudhary stated that a total of 2,17,272 teachers had been appointed in primary and middle schools in two phases. The third phase of recruitment for 66,800 teachers is underway. Besides, the appointment of 36,947 head teachers and 5,971 headmasters is also in process.If we look at Bihar's healthcare services, a total of 27,835 doctor, nurse, and ANM positions currently remain vacant. According to the Economic Survey data, 12,895 regular doctor positions are sanctioned, of which 5,751 are vacant. Of the 4,751 sanctioned posts for contractual doctors, 4,149 are vacant in 2023-24. Again, 7,810 regular Grade A nurse positions and 14,274 ANM positions are vacant. Contractual nurse and ANM positions are vacant, with 3,280 and 1,564, respectively.Data shows that there were no new regular doctor, nurse, or ANM recruitments between 2022-23 and 2023-24. The number of contract workers also decreased during these two years. Only the number of ASHA workers increased.As of September 2024, 25.2 percent of Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) posts, 35.8 percent of Lady Supervisor posts, 2.3 percent of Anganwadi Worker posts and 10.8 percent of Anganwadi Helper posts are vacant in Anganwadi services.According to media reports, as per the data collected by the General Administration Department in 2024, a total of 16.26 lakh posts of government employees are sanctioned in 45 departments of the state government, out of which 4.72 lakh posts were vacant.Diwakar argued, "Lakhs of vacancies exist in Bihar. Filling these positions will provide employment to a large number of people. Many villages lack schools. ANMs need to be posted in villages. For that, training centers need to be opened. If the government establishes training centers at the district level, that too will employ a large number of people. There is a lot of scope in education and health."It should be noted that in August 2025, the Bihar State Health Committee issued an advertisement for the recruitment of 5,000 ANM posts. Earlier in April, the BTSC announced vacancies for 11,000 staff nurse positions."There are no institutions to support agriculture and agro-based industries. There is no storage facility for grain and fertilizer at the block level. All this needs to be created. If you look at the backward and forward linkages of infrastructure, there is a lot of potential for employment in the agriculture sector," Diwakar asserted. Earlier, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar set a target of providing government jobs and employment to one crore youth in the next five years (2025 to 2030), doubling the target of 2020-25.In a tweet on the social media platform X, he said, "For this, new job and employment opportunities will be created in the private sector, especially in the industrial sector. A high-level committee is being formed for this."In 2020, under Saat Nischay-2, the government promised to provide 10 lakh government jobs and 10 lakh employment opportunities. This was later expanded to 12 lakh government jobs and 38 lakh employment opportunities — totalling 50 lakh jobs/employment by August 2025.In his tweet, CM Nitish claimed, "I am happy to inform that till now 10 lakh youth have been given government jobs and about 39 lakh people have been given employment in the state."Amid tall promises and claims, the real focus should be on job creation. In the caste-based census, families with a monthly income of less than ₹6,000 are considered poor. 34.13 percent of the families fall in this category.The number of people employed in the organized sector in the state is 15.9 lakh, which is merely 1.22 percent of the population. Meanwhile, 27.9 lakh, or 2.14 percent, work in the unorganized sector. 1.07 crore people work as farmers or agricultural assistants, which is 7.7 percent of the population. Meanwhile, 2.18 crore, or 16.73 percent, work as laborers.According to the economic survey, per capita income in Bihar in 2023-24 was ₹66,828, which is very low compared to other states in the country. Consequently, greater investment is needed in the state to create employment and improve the economic condition of the people.As of September 2024, the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) received a total of 3,752 investment proposals, with an estimated amount of ₹75,293.76 crore. In the financial year 2023-24, investment proposals related to 706 projects totalled ₹5,642.57 crore. Further, a total investment of ₹8,464.35 crore was made in 769 operational units, providing employment to 31,749 people. To create employment, the Bihar Industrial Investment Promotion Policy-2025 was announced in the state Budget. Its objective is to accelerate industrial development and attract investment. Meanwhile, the government signed MoUs worth over ₹1,80,000 crore with 423 companies across various sectors under Bihar Business Connect-2024.However, the government also needs to reduce its revenue expenditure. The budget for 2025-26 estimates revenue expenditure at ₹2.52 lakh crore, representing about 80 percent of the total budget. Capital expenditure is estimated at ₹64,894 crore—20 percent of the budget.In such a situation, the promise of 'government job in every house' made by Tejashwi will also require large scale economic reforms in the state.

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