 Summary of this article
- Bihar faces severe and overlapping crises — extremely low per capita income, poor literacy, weak health indicators and high crime rates — placing it among the most deprived regions globally.
- Despite structural distress, unemployment and migration, election discourse focused on abstract promises and distant futures rather than the present suffering of citizens.
- Stories like that of Soni Kumari and her siblings, who lost their parents during the pandemic and were denied dignity in death, echo the wider humanitarian neglect.
Bihar’s per capita income is Rs 70,000. It is a third of the national average, and nearly six times less than what a person in Telangana earns in a year. More than a third of its people, 33.8 per cent, live in multidimensional poverty, the highest in the country. If it were a country, Bihar would be the 12th poorest in the world. It also has the most illiterate people in India. Its literacy rate of 74.3 per cent is way below the national rate of 81 per cent. According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau figures, Bihar has the second-highest number of murder cases, after Uttar Pradesh. Bihar ranks last among all the states in the Human Development Index. A 2020 study found that 50 per cent of all households in Bihar had at least one migrant member. It has one of the highest unemployment rates. Bihar was ranked 18th out of 19 large states according to NITI Aayog’s State Health Index 2019-20. It has the highest share of underweight children. |
