Focus on improving literacy amongst women in Bihar

While the overall Bihar literacy rate stood at 54.1% at the end of 2007, the literacy rate amongst women was abysmally low at about 35%.

Hence the recent move by the Bihar government to invest about Rs. 52.6 crores for literacy programs for 40 lakhs illiterate women falling under the age group of 15-35 years is a welcome move.

The program called Mukyamantri Akshar Aanchal Yojana is definitely a good move as empowering women by education will help in improving the socio-economic conditions of the people of Bihar.

More details can be found in the Times of India article Rs 52.6 cr literacy programme for women okayed


Mukhyamantri Akshar Aanchal Yojana meant to make 40 lakh
illiterate women falling under age group of 15-35 years literate across the state

Five Patna University colleges get new Principals.

All government appointments were at a standstill in the last few years or even decades in Bihar. The same was the case with the education sector also. Many Patna University (PU) colleges did not have a Principal for decades. Many of the colleges were functioning with Professors Incharge. Now this has changed. The Vice Chancellor Mr. Shyam Lal has announced the appointment of Principals for 5 colleges under PU.

List of new Principals
1. Patna Science College - Prof. Kashi Nath (Was the Head of Physics department in Patna Science college)
2. Patna College - Prof. Lal Keshwar Prasad Singh (Was Patna college geography teacher)
3. Magadh Mahila College - Prof. Dolly Sinha (Was head of Physics department in Magadh Mahila college)
4. B. N. College - Prof. Raj Kishore Prasad (Was physics teacher in B R A Bihar University)
5. Vanijya Mahavidyalaya - Prof. Umesh Mishra (Was PU applied economics and commerce department head)

Congratulations to all the new Principals. I hope they can help in accelerating the sustained growth and progress of Bihar.

More details about these new appointments can be found in the Times of India Article Five PU colleges get new principals

Bihar's Economic Survey 2008-09

The Bihar government carried out an economic survey for the year 2008 - 09. The report of this survey was published in Feb 2009. It provides some interesting highlights of the economy in Bihar.

Out of the many interesting highlights, I am listing some

1. Out of the entire Bihar population 89.5% stay in the rural areas

2. Population density is 880

3. Sex ratio is 919 girls to 1000 boys with Siwan having the best ratio of 1031 girls to every 1000 boys and Munger having the worst ratio of 872 girls per 1000 boys. Patna follows close behind with 873 girls to 1000 boys. (However the high ratios in Siwan is most likely due to emigration of the male population to other states in India in search of work)

4. Gross enrollment of students from Bihar in higher education is 6.7% compared to the India average of 9.2%. While the male enrollment is better the female enrollment is only 3.5% against India average of 7.7%

5. Bihar has a very low density of higher education institutions. For e.g. Bihar has only 7 engineering colleges (with no new applications for engineering colleges pending). Compare this with 292 engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh (with applications for 113 new colleges pending) and 286 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu (with applications for 53 new colleges pending). Even UP has 125 engineering colleges with 43 new applications pending.

5. Reduced crime rate: As per the report there were 117.9 crimes per lakh of population for the year 2007 which is below the national average of 175.10. This placed Bihar at the 28th rank for crime with Pondicherry having the highest crime rate of 475.4 crimes per lakh population and Nagaland having the lowest crime rate of 54.4 crimes per lakh population. Details of various states are present in the table below.

There are many more details in the report. I have uploaded this report on my companion site "sites.google.com/site/progressivebihar" for anyone who wants to download the report.