Lessons from the Kosi Embankments

The Kosi River is notorious for its vagaries. It bisects North Bihar almost north-south. Mentioned as the elder sister of the sage Vishwamit...

The Kosi River is notorious for its vagaries. It bisects North Bihar almost north-south. Mentioned as the elder sister of the sage Vishwamitra in scriptures, the story of flood control in India starts with this river. Kosi had embankments on either side in the 1950s. Some 382 villages with a population of nearly one million (2001 census) are trapped within the two embankments. The area within the embankments spreads over Supaul, Saharsa, Madhubani and Darbhanga districts.

Primary level education within the embankments and outside them is alarming. In the flooded or waterlogged areas, the main concern is the safety and security of children, as they may have to ford streams in an attempt to reach their schools. The problem is exacerbated by the apathy of the teachers, lack of amenities, non-existence of the school building in some cases or unauthorised occupation of the school building by local goons, and corruption in the functioning of the institution.

The government has started a school-going incentive scheme for children under which they get cash payment of Rs. 20 per month together with free mid-day meals in the school. This facility is available for the schools that show 75 percent attendance on a regular basis. The villagers complain that the rice is picked up from the stores even if students do not come to the school. They charge the school committee members of manipulating the grains.

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A recent marking of villages located within the Kosi embankments and corresponding statistics from the Census Report (2001) give startling revelations. Female literacy rates within the villages are as low as 14.39 percent. In Maruana block of Madhubani district and Simri Bakhtiyarpur of Saharsa, female literacy rate is less than 10 percent despite a decades-long tamasha of women’s empowerment. Existing male literacy of 38.79 percent for those trapped within the Kosi embankments can be traced to 1960 at the national level and to 1982 in Bihar. Overall literacy rate of 30.11 per cent within the Kosi embankments existed at the national level in 1963 and at the Bihar level in 1984.

If the literacy level of people is any guide to the quality of life in a civilized society, one can well imagine where the people living within the Kosi embankments stand. If the whole nation rises to attain better development indices today, wouldn’t the people of this pocket start with a disadvantage of 40 years? Will they not lag behind even their Bihari brethren by 20 years? Is any politician, from Patna to Delhi, concerned about their plight?

(Courtesy Charkha Features)