BY : NEHA SHAHAB
Bihar has a population of over 103 million.
Bihar is the only state in India where the incidence of poverty is uniformly at the highest level (46-70%) in all the sub-regions. The annual real per capita income of Bihar at Rs 3650 is about a third of the national average of Rs 11,625. Bihar is also the only Indian state where the majority of the population - 52.47% - is illiterate.
Bihar has 7.04 million hectares under agriculture and its yield of 1679 kg per hectare. While it is less than the national average of 1739 kg per hectare, it is better than that of six other states, which include some big agricultural states like Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The causes of poverty in Bihar may be viewed in terms of certain parameters such as (i) Over population and apathy towards family planning (ii) Poor land and water management for agriculture (iii) Mal-administration, poor governance and corruption (iv) Illiteracy (v) Poor Health care (vi) Lack of industrialisation.
