The Bihar cabinet has approved the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, a statewide plan to underwrite women’s micro-enterprise at the household level. Under the scheme, one woman from every family can apply for a ₹10,000 first instalment to start an income-generating activity of her choice, with a performance-linked top-up of up to ₹2 lakh after six months to scale viable ventures. Applications open in September 2025, and the government says bank transfers will also start from September, signalling a rapid rollout.
The state has positioned this as more than a one-off grant. The Rural Development Department (RDD) will run the programme across rural Bihar, while the Urban Development & Housing Department will assist in towns. Alongside finance, the administration plans to develop ‘haat-bazar’ market spaces to help beneficiaries sell what they produce—an often missing link in small-enterprise schemes. Officials say the design draws on inputs from 70,000 women’s groups engaged during the recent Mahila Samvad outreach, and builds on two decades of women-centric measures, including 50% quotas in local bodies and the scale-up of JEEViKA self-help groups (SHGs).
While the cabinet note for this particular scheme focuses on procedures and timelines, the broader fiscal backdrop matters. Within the same decision cycle, the government announced an umbrella ₹20,000-crore allocation for women’s employment initiatives and cleared seven new government medical colleges—signalling that the self-employment push is nested in a larger social-sector package and not an isolated promise. Media briefings also referenced related measures like sportspersons’ recruitment and a risk allowance for certain police units, but the anchor for women remains the ₹10,000+₹2 lakh ladder.
Politically, the timing is unmistakable—it’s an election season move. Yet multiple independent outlets converged on the same operational details: household-level eligibility, September application window, direct transfers, and the six-month assessment as the gate to higher support. That consistency across sources—ranging from national dailies to public broadcasters—suggests the administrative blueprint is reasonably firm.
A key enabler is Bihar’s dense SHG network. JEEViKA, launched in 2006 and now one of India’s largest women’s collective platforms, counts ~11 lakh SHGs and ~1.4 crore members—a ready pipeline for targeting, peer-monitoring and last-mile handholding. Evaluations of SHG-based livelihoods in Bihar and nationally find improvements in financial inclusion (lower reliance on high-cost debt) and resilience, which are exactly the ingredients micro-enterprises need to survive beyond a seed grant. If RDD leverages this architecture (credit links, community cadres, cluster federations), the scheme’s success odds go up.
Another complementary plank arrived almost in parallel: the Bihar Rajya Jeevika Nidhi Saakh Sahkari Sangh Limited, a women-focused credit cooperative launched by the Prime Minister on September 2, 2025, with ₹105 crore moved at launch and ₹1,000 crore sanctioned. If effectively dovetailed, the grant-led Rojgar Yojana can function as the on-ramp while Jeevika Nidhi provides working capital and growth credit—together reducing the common “capital cliff” micro-entrepreneurs face after the first few months.
What to watch next: guidelines and targeting. The state has indicated quick disbursals, but impact will hinge on a few nuts-and-bolts: (1) transparent selection where demand exceeds supply; (2) simple documentation that doesn’t exclude the poorest; (3) timely six-month assessments tied to real business milestones; and (4) market access—those promised haat-bazars and SHG procurement linkages. If these pieces hold, the “₹10k now + up to ₹2 lakh later” design can help women move from subsistence activity to sustainable micro-enterprise rather than stall after the first purchase of tools or inventory.
Primary source: The Times of India report by Jai Narain Pandey (Aug 30, 2025). Corroborated by cabinet-package coverage in ToI/Economic Times/Indian Express and public broadcasters (DD News/All India Radio); contextualized with official notes on Jeevika Nidhi and research on Bihar’s SHG ecosystem.
