The land of the republic of Licchavi, the first democracy of Vaishali, world’s largest library of Nalanda and Buddha’s knowledge is holding first of its place in “Bimaru” states is not lesser a social and political stem. The question is: who is responsible for the plight of such historical, cultural and prosperous state? Whatever the reasons are, but it has worked to lay a dust sheet on Bihar’s glorious history and puts it into an inferiority zone at the global platform. Decades of efforts, different government policies and solutions are unable to eliminate or push away the letter “B” from the above word Bimaru. Looks like the land/state is in love with this word with whole lot of attachment. Looking at the modern sustainable development goals (SDG) and present scenario of the state, we realize that it has been pushed deep into every indicator which has fallen short, making it stay at the bottom of the pyramid in almost all the areas of sustainable development index, say it education, employment, livelihood, health, climate, social justice and so on.
The challenge of development initiatives in Bihar is also enormous due to the persistent systemic issues including complex social stratifications, unsatisfactory infrastructures and poor level of governance. These problems are so complex and interlinked to each other thereby making it a vicious cycle. Thus, all those positive changes, if any, get trapped under the web of adversity.
This ocean of problems is not recent and has been percolating since generations. Sometimes, it seems to be well known but not well understood. Poverty, starvation, famine, flood, broken education system are just the effect that one needs to understand in deep.
Bihar’s political establishment in recent past has completely failed in working towards upliftment of the people and their thought process. They were unable to push any development initiatives that could have given a better direction to the state and maximize its resource utilization. When other states were struggling to take the development agenda forward and thinking about strengthening schools and education, employment, industrialization; Bihar was diving deep into caste based politics/issues. Instead of fixing what was at fault and setting up good examples, this agenda ended up worsening external people’s perspective towards the state and the society around them. It is rightly said that Bad words are more powerful than good deeds. Very soon, it did not take too long to affect the whole narrative for insiders as well as outsiders .
Due to this situation, the people of Bihar, civil society organizations, businessman, politicians, academicians etc. most of them are suffering from very different biases and preconceived notions. Bihar is labelled as a place with nothing of value, is geographically land-locked and has persistent law & order issue. Knowing that most of these are myths, this is causing a serious harm to the of Bihar. These notions are like stains which are deeply damaging Bihar’s growth prospects. For example: What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about Bihar? (if you do not belong to this place) Probably the laughter or the fear….
This is the present narrative and under these circumstances, it is very difficult to build trust and acceptance towards strong potential that the state holds. We need to regain & apply the practices, legacy, uniqueness or any success stories that could help us build an essence to the beauty of the place.
However, the time is changing and so does the people and their perceptions. Some of the practices are being recognized at the global platform. Some of the places are being taken under the world heritage sites, and some local foods are reaching the plates across nation & world. These are very positive signals of change and we shouldn’t deny those in present turmoil.