Bihar is showing that supporting athletes is not just about celebrating medals after a big event — it is about creating a system where athletes can actually build a career in sport.
On National Sports Day 2026, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary is set to honour two of the state’s biggest sporting achievers from the 2026 Commonwealth Games — Soman Rana and Jhandu Kumar. Rana, from Gaya, won gold in the Men’s Shot Put F57, becoming the first Indian to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in that event. Jhandu Kumar, from Nalanda, won bronze in the Men’s Heavyweight Para Powerlifting event and opened India’s medal account at the Games.
For their achievements, the Bihar government awarded Soman Rana ₹30 lakh and Jhandu Kumar ₹15 lakh, along with government job offers.
“Medal Lao, Naukri Pao” — More Than a Slogan
Both athletes will benefit from Bihar’s “Medal Lao, Naukri Pao” (Bring a Medal, Get a Job) policy, which offers government appointments to athletes who win medals at international multi-sport events. It’s a scheme that has already delivered for athletes beyond just marquee names.
Last month, Bihar Police appointed cricketers Akashdeep and Mukesh Kumar as Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP) under this same policy — though notably, their appointments come with a five-year bond requiring them to stay active in competitive cricket. It’s a detail that matters: the scheme isn’t handing out jobs unconditionally, it’s tying the reward to continued performance and representation.
What stands out is the range of sports covered. This isn’t a cricket-only initiative — para-athletics, powerlifting, and other disciplines are getting the same recognition, which is a meaningful shift in a country where cricket usually absorbs most of the attention and funding.
Rewarding medal winners is one thing. Building the next generation is another — and this is where Bihar’s scholarship schemes come in.
The state runs three tiered scholarship programs for young athletes:
- Prerna — up to ₹3 lakh per year
- Saksham — up to ₹5 lakh per year
- Utkarsh — up to ₹20 lakh per year
These aren’t token amounts. They’re designed to cover training, nutrition, sports equipment, competition travel, and sports-science support — the kind of expenses that often force promising young athletes out of the sport before they ever get a real shot. In the 2026 financial year alone, 637 athletes across the state received scholarship selection letters under these three schemes.
Bihar has never lacked athletic talent — what it has historically lacked is infrastructure, funding continuity, and a clear pathway from grassroots promise to international podium. The last one to two years suggest that gap is starting to close: medal-linked government jobs, tiered scholarships based on athlete level, and a stated plan to run talent-hunt campaigns in every panchayat across the state.
If this system holds — and continues to expand rather than fade after a news cycle — Bihar has a genuine shot at becoming one of India’s stronger medal-contributing states in the years ahead.