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The Bihar Development Initiative (BDI), a program of CII, aims to engage industry in a unique Build Bihar campaign. The idea is to revive and help in the process of social and economic development by evolving a platform for cooperation by the vastly successful and talented Bihari diaspora. CII is associated through BDI with initiating, coordinating, and assisting volunteer efforts for progress in state social and development parameters.

Background:

India today is the fourth-largest economy in the world. Poverty levels have come down from 55 percent in 1974 to 26 percent today. India can also claim to be quickly moving toward becoming the production hub of the world. There has been an appreciable rise in literacy and in life expectancy.

Bihar, the third-most-populous state, remains last on the human development index, with the lowest per-capital rural income. Globalization has been a nonstarter here, and the state has often been referred to as the “area of darkness.”

Time seems to have stood still in Bihar, and it is the children who are the casualties: 3.8 million in the age group6 to 14 years remain out of school, 59 percent of boys drop out before class 5 for economic reasons, and 8 out of 10 girls do not complete primary school. Fifty-three percent of the population is below the poverty line, and 54 percent of the children are malnourished.

Children from Bihar and Jharkhand make up the largest number of runaways, 30 percent of slum dwellers in Delhi are from Bihar, and every eighth illiterate woman lives in Bihar. Given this background and realizing the need to engage much more in Bihar, revive it, and help in the process of recovery, CII embarked on a Bihar Development Initiative in the beginning of 2004, focusing on education.

Bihar Development Initiative

The Bihar Development Initiative (BDI), a program of CII, which, realizing the need to engage industry in a unique Build Bihar campaign, aims to directly intervene in more active development in Bihar while reviving and helping in the process of social and economic development by evolving a platform for cooperation by the vastly successful and talented Bihari diaspora. CII is associated through BDI with initiating, coordinating, and assisting volunteer efforts for progress in state social and development parameters.

The concept of BDI was introduced on August 27, 2004, at a meeting with people from Bihar based in Delhi, inviting participation in this social initiative. The response was tremendous, and most of the participants were eager to contribute to their home state.

At the meeting, some fields of intervention were identified and participants indicated their areas of interest. Groups were set up for education, crafts, health, and rural development and agriculture. Since then, many further meetings of the smaller groups have been held and strategies are being evolved.

Vision

Commitment to the cause of a developed Bihar, which will offer all its people opportunity and growth

Mission

To bring together all well-wishers and garner all resources to help build Bihar into a vibrant, successful state

Strategy

BDI's primary strategy is to build a positive perception of the state while working concurrently at the micro level in education, health, crafts, and rural development and agriculture

BDI Projects

Education & Training

Remedial Lessons Program

• The first phase of the three-month remedial lessons program was begun in July 2004 in five schools of the Rupauli panchayat of the Samastipur district in north Bihar under the guidance of Pratham, an NGO working in education. Eleven local youth, after undergoing short training from Pratham, are running the classes in batches of 25.

  The impact has been good, as most children who could not read or write can do so now. Sustainability of the program has been ensured, with the participation of panchayat shiksha mitras [[Translate this?]] in the project.

  Provision of books for setting up libraries in these schools and voluntary donation of toys, games, sports items, and even clothes are part of this program.

• A 10-day summer workshop was conducted for children by an artist from Patna who taught them papier mâché and painting.

• Tree planting was taken up in three schools.
  

  Training:

• Visits to the state revealed that the dismal standard of education, stemmed from de-motivated teachers, who were bogged down by having to take 2-3 classes, with over 100 students, due to shortage of teachers. This was further aggravated when they were put on non-teaching duty
  
  
• Visits to the state revealed that the dismal educational standard stemmed from demotivated teachers, who were bogged down by having to take two or three classes with more than 100 students due to a teacher shortage. This was further aggravated when they were put on nonteaching duty such as cattle counting by block officials.
  
  

• Workshop on Motivation and Attitudinal Change for Teachers:
  The first two-day workshop on bringing about attitudinal change was held in October 2004, with 50 teachers from three blocks of the Samastipur district. Twenty-five of the participants were women.
  

• Workshop on Empowerment:
  A two-day workshop on empowerment was held for 40 girls of the Women's College. There was tremendous response to this, and the girls, initially diffident, ended up much more confident, challenging the boundaries of their social environment.

Crafts:

• CII envisages a role for itself in providing a platform that enables Bihar craftspeople to exhibit and establish market linkages. The first such display was held at the Kolkata Consumer Fair from November 4 to 8, 2004. Some of the crafts on display and for sale were cow dung sculpture, papier mâché, terra cotta, sikki work, Madhubani painting, coconut shell sculpture, tikli work, and toffee wrapper birds.
  

For more information please send email to iac@cii-usa.org.