Six changes I would like to see in Bihar, no matter who wins
The first phase of polling for the Bihar Assembly elections has already been held. In less than a month, the results will be declared, and until and unless it is not a hung verdict, we will come to know who gets to rule the state - the BJP-led NDA or the three-party Grand Alliance. Bihar has generally been a cesspit in terms of development and governance. Whatever little change for good took place was during seven-odd years when the BJP and JD(U) ran the government in alliance, till June 2013. Ever since Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar joined hands with Yadav strongman Lalu Prasad, the state has again started slipping back to the 15-year “Jungle Raj” of the RJD.
Having born in my ancestral village which falls under Munger (erstwhile Monghyr) district and brought up in the ancient city of Gaya (where my father worked) till Class 12, I am filled with remorse whenever I visit these two places. Reluctantly leaving the state for a better future, like thousands of others, I enrolled myself in Kirori Mal College in Delhi University for my graduation. I may have escaped the trauma, but most of those who did not (or, could not) leave Bihar have continued to lack even the basic necessities of life.
All I want, is a sensitive government to rule Bihar. Whichever party comes to power, I wish to see dramatic changes in the following six spheres of life:
1. Water
Till Lalu had become the chief minister of Bihar in 1990, the local municipality supplied piped water in Gaya, which is a mythological city where Hindus descend in lakhs every year to pay obeisance (“pind-daan”) to their ancestors. Besides, the internationally-famous Bodh Gaya, where Gautam Buddha got enlightenment, is just 11km away. However, the piped water supply was stopped thereafter in AP Colony, the most posh locality in town. Like every other household, we too got a borewell dug. However, as the water sank, that borewell dried up. We got the borewell dug deeper to about 170 feet in 2006. But for the past few years, even this has been drying up during summer. Those who could get the borewell dug deeper to about 250 feet have some relief but the others are now dependant on tankers.
My village, which is just 60km away from the district headquarters Munger, has not yet got piped water. Like many surrounding villages, it is also dependant on open wells. I am witness to snakes falling inside our well and then being extricated with much difficulty. And when attempts to take them out would fail, they would be shot dead with our double barrel gun. Subsequently, the water had to be emptied and cleaned by sprinkling chemicals before the well could be used again. Till then, water had to be ferried from a neighbour’s well.
The backwardness of Bihar can be gauged from the fact that only 3.1 per cent of the households treat water to make it safer for drinking. The rest drink directly from sources like pipes, wells, tubewells, borewells and hand pumps. Related to water is toilet facility and only 25.9 per cent of the households enjoy this. It is a mere 19 per cent in the rural areas.
2. Roads
The roads of Bihar had been pathetic till the RJD was in power till 2005. There was a bereavement in our family in 2003 and I had driven from Gaya to Jamui and from there to Sultanganj to immerse the ashes of my uncle in the Ganges. From Jamui, I went to my village. The road was not only broken throughout the journey but at places it did not exist at all. The condition of the roads can be imagined from the fact that at some places, I had to drive through slush fields.
I again drove from Gaya to my village in 2012, when Nitish was the chief minister, this time as a “Shravan poot” (obedient son) with my parents sitting behind. I was all prepared for a nightmarish journey. I had stored enough food and water for the gruelling journey. To my pleasant surprise, the roads matched those in Lutyens' Delhi. While Lalu may have promised roads as smooth as “Hema Malini’s cheeks”, it was Nitish who delivered it. I covered the 200-odd km distance in just five hours, after stopping at several places in between. In contrast, it had taken over ten hours to reach my village on the previous occasion. I am told that the roads are turning into pre-2005 days now. The roads even in Gaya are filled with potholes.
While Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari’s target was to build 12km of national highways everyday in 2014, Bihar did not construct roads even at the rate of one km per day, according to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The figures are more or less the same for 2013, when the Congress-led UPA was in power. Nitish, however, accuses the BJP-led NDA at the Centre of holding back funds, making it difficult for the state even to maintain the old roads.
3. Law and Order
My parents had come down to Ahmedabad in 1998 when I was working with The Indian Express. They had come to support us as my wife was in the family way. After returning from office, I would take them out along the posh CG Road after eating dinner. They were pleasantly surprised to see girls and women whizzing past and all decked up, but there was not a single man to even turn around and notice, leave aside passing a lewd remark or whistling. My parents had exclaimed that Gujarat was a “paradise on earth” for women. The freedom women had in Gujarat was unimaginable in Bihar where they could not come out of homes after sunset. Worse, girls were kidnapped from schools and colleges in broad daylight, raped or returned to their families after getting ransom. The situation has only slightly improved but they cannot afford to venture out alone or in twos or threes even now after sunset.
My parents had left our domestic help to take care of our house back in Gaya. We were shocked one day when we were informed that dacoity had taken place in our house in Gaya. A group of boys had barged into our house, gagged and tied our help one evening and taken away all our articles like fans, coolers, refrigerator, utensils, television, emergency lights and inverter. The missing articles also included an Usha sewing machine to which my mother had a great sentimental attachment. It had been gifted by her mother during her marriage. The dacoits took away the articles on a handcart while my terrified and “helpless” neighbours just peeped through their windows. Imagine the audacity of the dacoits - they released our help and told him to contact the police only half an hour after they had left. On being informed by one of our neighbours, my father rushed back to Gaya while I used my contacts to get the superintendent of police (SP), Gaya, to act. The young and bold officer was very helpful as not only the culprits were arrested but also most of the articles were recovered, though in poor condition. However, the sewing machine could never be traced. My mother gets teary-eyed even today whenever we mention it.
All the arrested culprits incidentally were young Yadavs, all in their teens or early 20s, from a hamlet called Chidaiyyan Taand. They had been emboldened by the fact that the RJD was at the helm and they thought no one could book them whatever they did. Unfortunately, the SP could not remain bold enough for long and his helplessness was visible when he indicated that he could not help further in the recovery of other missing articles. As arrests of accused persons and recovery of articles were unimaginable in that period, I was dubbed a “hero” in my parents’ circles for showing the “courage” to press upon the police to pursue the case and achieving this “feat”.
The situation was normal thereafter. On several occasions, my parents left Gaya for months together to visit my brother and sister in the US and the UK respectively without any untoward incident happening. In November 2013, five months after Nitish parted ways with the BJP, they left for the UK. The same month, a major burglary took place in my house. This time, the miscreants broke open our doors and the locker of our almirah and took away all our jewellery worth lakhs kept there for years together. I again rushed to Gaya and met the senior SP (SSP) but to no avail. The SSP perhaps was not as efficient or bold as the SP. Whatever the reasons might have been, we suffered a major loss.
The two incidents prove one point: that the law and order situation in Bihar was deplorable during the RJD rule and it has deteriorated after Nitish joined hands with Lalu. In between, the state had shown signs of improvement on this front.
Even the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data for 2014 released in August states that Bihar ranks among the top few when it comes to serious crimes. For instance, Bihar is at the second place, after Uttar Pradesh in terms of murders with 3,403 such crimes being committed. The same is true regarding attempt to murder cases whose figure stood at 4,379. There were 538 recorded incidents of dacoity, which is second only to Maharashtra. In cases of theft, the state recorded a total of 22,888 cases and remained behind Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Cases of theft and burglary also touched a high in 2014. While there were 22,888 cases of theft, cases of burglary stood at 4,674. Kidnapping cases also rose by 39 per cent during 2012-2014. The NCRB has found Bihar, along with Uttar Pradesh, to be the most unsafe to travel by road.
4. Health
Gaya has a government medical college and hospital for decades. The hospital is in tatters now, having deteriorated slowly and gradually over the years. All ills ail this hospital and it is the last resort of those who cannot afford to see a private doctor or get admitted to a private nursing home. While doctors in the hospital are missing, medicines are also not available here and one has to buy them from outside. There is no good private multi-specialty hospital either or a standard diagnostic centre in this city. In their absence, one has to rush to Patna, about 100km away, or to Delhi for treatment of a serious ailment.
My father suffered brain stroke while he was in our village in May 2013. After my mother informed me on phone, I got in touch with some of my doctor friends who told me that he needed an injection within four-five hours if he had to be saved. While I coordinated from Delhi, he was rushed to a private nursing home in Bhagalpur, 60km away. That was the nearest and best place one could reach in those circumstances. My father reached Bhagalpur just in the nick of time and it is to the credit of the doctor, Hemshankar Sharma, that my father could be saved. An MRI is recommended in such a case. As there was no facility for an MRI, a CT scan was performed on my father, and the doctor, on the sheer basis of his expertise and experience, administered the life-saving injections.
I brought my father to Delhi for a thorough check-up and from here he went to the UK for advanced treatment. I really feel sorry for those patients in the villages who cannot afford to rush to the nearest towns and cities on a private vehicle or do not have access to the opportunities which my father had.
According to the Annual Health Survey 2010-11 Fact Sheet, prepared by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, only 10.3 per cent of the population suffering from acute illness takes treatment from government sources. At 10.6 per cent, the rural population is more dependent on the government hospitals than the urban people, of whom only 7.1 per cent bank upon them.
5. Education
Gaya lacks good schools and colleges. For decades, my alma mater Nazareth Academy was the only school of repute which could match the standards of a good school in Patna. Parents would try their best to get their wards admitted to this school. After all these years, DPS has come up. But even now, one does not have many options. As far as college education is concerned, the best college is Gaya College, a Hindi-medium one which cannot compete even with a college which is the last choice of students in Delhi. In the absence of a good college, most of the students leave the city after Class 12. This is the main reason for the migration of people not only from Gaya but almost all cities and towns of Bihar.
No wonder, Bihar’s effective literacy rate is unenviable at 66.3 per cent. While urban areas boast of 82.4 per cent literacy, in the rural areas the literacy rate is a mere 63.8 per cent. Moreover, only 56.3 per cent of the women are literate as against 75.8 per cent of the men.
6. Electricity
This is one sector where Nitish deserves some compliments. I remember we had studied in lanterns and lamps as load-shedding and tripping were a common feature. We had taken it for granted. My mother would wake us up early morning and we would keep the lamp outside and study inside a net as Gaya was infested with mosquitoes. After we left the place, my parents bought an inverter and a generator. The situation has improved only in the last one year when electricity has been privatised. Now, one is happy if light goes out “just for an hour or so everyday”.
Long ago, there used to be electricity in our village. But slowly and gradually it vanished and so did the cables. Our village, like others in the vicinity, would plunge into darkness at night. Matters would be worse when dacoits would raid our village. The elders would be ready with guns and searchlights and a game of hide-and-seek would be played between them through the night. Fortunately, they could never strike our village, though they did commit dacoity in the surrounding areas.
It is popularly said “necessity is the mother of all inventions”. So, a couple of years back, one Sahuji’s son came up with an idea. He set up a network of cables in our village. He bought a generator and would supply electricity for a stipulated duration during the night just to light the bulbs. He would charge his customers per bulb. But I am told he suffered huge losses because diesel price soared, maintenance was high and some would not pay. He has quit his business now. Fortunately, electricity has returned to the village but only for about 12 hours every day. Even though the voltage is quite low, a fan can just rotate and there is sufficient light to see your food while eating. No one complains as compared with the “no-electricity” days, and this is a welcome change and they thank Nitish for it. If my fellow villagers saw the life a person leads in the metros they would start demanding more.
The backwardness of Bihar is evident from the fact that even after 68 years of independence, only 40.6 per cent households have access to electricity – of them 84.1 per cent are urban while 34.1 per cent are rural households. It may sound shocking, but kerosene is the main source of lighting for 80.2 per cent of the households in Bihar – 87.8 per cent in rural areas and 29.5 per cent in the urban areas. The rest - a miniscule portion - of the households can boast of electricity.
Moreover, 89 per cent of the households use firewood, crop residues and cowdung cakes as the main source of fuel for cooking while 0.2 per cent use kerosene for the purpose. Just nine per cent of the households use LPG or PNG for cooking food.
Whichever party comes to power, I want to see a Bihar in which there is piped water in every household; the roads are as good as those in the other states or in Delhi; the law and order situation is such that a woman can move on the roads freely and safely without any fear of getting teased; the government hospital should function efficiently, with doctors and other staff in full attendance, with medicines being dispensed to the patients rather than being sold out in the black market; more good schools and colleges should open so that the city does not see migrations; it should also have good engineering and medical colleges and other vocational institutes to enable the people to get decent employment; and, of course, electricity. Uninterrupted electricity supply will spur growth in all sectors of life.