West Champaran district in the northern part of Bihar is one of the worst places in the world to be in. Champaran’s only claim to fame was as the site of the Gandhian satyagraha named in its likeness in 1917. After the independence, when India embarked on five year plans and slow infrastructure development, places like West Champaran were forgotten. There are no navigable roads or electricity in most places. Where attempts at electrification were made (Bihar Government claims that two hydro electric projects were completed – Valmiki Nagar and Triveni Canal and 5 are in the pipeline), the power cut made it easier for local mafia to steal power cables and sell them there by robbing the local population of any benefits. But it does not matter anyway since most of the population cannot afford electricity. The actual consumption of electricity is well below national averageof 334.3 units at or below 54.9 units. The average peasant in Champaran makes well below the Bihari average of average of Rs. 2193 (compared to the Indian average of Rs. 8399.) Rural poverty is crushingly over 50%. Unfortunately, none of these statistics are reliable even though the truth lies decidedly in the grimmer side of the scale. By any index of human quality, this blighted district is at the bottom of the scale. If Bihar was a country on its own, it would have been a failed state.
Bettiah, the district capital is one of the worst in Bihar, which is saying something. The district is firmly under the control of half a dozen feudal landlords (Vermas of Shikarpur, Krishna Prasad and Om Prakash of Bhaisahi, Rajas of Ramnagar, Rai and Sharma of Vilaspur, Shahi of Dumaria and Singhs of Baragaon) each illegally possessing thousands of acres. Everyone of these families have members in the legislative assemblies or other elected bodies. The non-landed peasantry is uneducated and illiterate (60% of the population). Among females, only 26% are functionally literate. Both these are substantially lower than even the average for Bihar. Most residents are subsistence farmers where there is semi-arable land even though most are landless laborers under the slavish control of the landed families. They are oppressed and beaten and denied any and all the benefits of the land reform put in place by the Government in the 70s. In addition to this caste distrimination is rampant with at least a dozen cases are registered a year even though perhaps hundreds go unregistered.As is the case in the rest of Bihar, there is no law or order in Bettiah or nearby areas.
The politicians are hand in glove with the land owners and they use the mafia and the police to serve their needs. Peasants are beaten, imprisoned, raped and ravaged for asking for their rights or even for daring to vote.
So, why did I make this really long introduction?
We make a big deal out of the prosperous growth urban India has experienced in the last 15 years. The country had an average rate of growth of 2.2 (the so-called Hindu rate of growth) until 1995 from which point India grew at an average of 4.7% and if you take the last 3 or 4 years, the average rate of growth is perhaps 8 or 9 percent.This rate of growth has made a very prosperous urban middle-class and unemployment in the educated sector in the urban areas have become very low. This aspect of the urban India is celebrated by the whole world and Indians are justifiably proud of this. Yet, anyone who has visited India in recent years, it is impossible to ignore the squalor and filth of her cities. We immediately blame the Biharis and UP villagers for this mess and wish they would go back to their states. But where will they go? And what will they do there? What sort of governance can they expect in these places? And how do you create a sustainable development in these places so that they are not forced to move to Delhi or Bombay?
When it comes to places like Bettiah, while we may disagree on specifics, I don't think we will argue that the situation on the ground is any better than the description above unless your name begins with Laloo and ends with Yadav.
But that is how the agreement ends.
When it comes to discussing what can be done about this situation, the crackpot theories come out and in the end, we finish our tea and walk away blaming politics and shrugging that nothing can be done.Do we need to be that pessimistic? Is there a recipe that might work to solve the problems of West Champaran?
Is there a hope for that India?
