Married into Bihar and want to be a teacher? New domicile rule may pose hurdle

Bihar's new domicile rule may pose a hurdle for women married into the state who aspire to become teachers. The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), which introduced the Domicile Policy 2025, now requires women married into Bihar to submit documents from their parents' address instead of their husband's. This effectively disqualifies these women from availing reservation benefits.

The policy was introduced in September 2025, coinciding with the opening of applications for 32,388 teacher posts through the Teachers Recruitment Examination (TRE)-4. A BPSC official stated that the new rule was introduced to ensure the proper implementation of the domicile policy for the first time. Since the policy's implementation, nearly one-fifth of BPSC's 2.68 lakh teacher appointments have been from outside the state.

Non-domicile candidates, including those from outside Bihar, do not receive state reservation benefits and must compete for 15% open seats. They also need to score 60% in central and state teacher eligibility tests to qualify, which is the highest qualifying mark among the categories.