Page 3 - Projektbericht terre des hommes Bihar

Situation in the

project area

Bihar is in the top five poorest states of India. It is 12th largest state in terms

of geographical size but third largest by population. Jehanabad is one of 38
districts of Bihar situated in central part of the state. Development indicators

of the district is not much better than average indicators of the state.

Jehanabad is notorious for caste based division, violence and private armies

and their armed struggle.

Major problems of the project area are as follows :

 Poor literacy rate (63.8 % which is 11 % lesser than national literacy rate)
and literacy rate for Mushar caste is 14% only .

 Poor Infrastructure of schools, no facility of drinking water, no electricity,
terrible state of toilets.

 Poor Implementation of Right to Education act. Student Teacher ratio in
schools is 1:60 (as per RTE it should be 1: 40 or below 40). Irregularity of

teachers, academic level of students is very low.

 Lack of nutrition in food (45% children below five years are underweight

and 53.26 are stunted in the Jehanabad district)

 Discrimination, exploitation and abuse of children on the basis of caste is

very high especially in case of mushar children.