The latest NITI Aayog report states that 64.75 per cent of Kishanganj’s population are multidimensionally poor. This TCN Ground Report looks at the reasons behind Kishanganj’s poor performance.
Sami Ahmad | TwoCircles.net
BIHAR – Bihar’s only Muslim majority district of Kishanganj is the worst performing district on many indices of development and has the highest multidimensional poverty index (MPI) in the state, revealed the National Institution of Transforming India or NITI Aayog’s recently released report.
The district also has the worst literacy rate as per the census of 2011.
Muslims constitute around 68 per cent of Kishanganj’s total population of 16.90 lakhs (Census of India 2011). In a research paper released by the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi in 2008, the percentage of Muslims in the district was stated to be 70.
This district was carved out of the Purnia district on 14 January 1990. Earlier it was a subdivision of the Purnia district.
While Bihar is at the bottom of this MPI in India, the Kishanganj and Araria districts of the Seemanchal area of the state constitute the two worst performers. Araria too has a substantial number of Muslims at 43 per cent.
The latest NITI Aayog report states that 64.75 per cent of Kishanganj’s population are multidimensionally poor. Araria comes at second, with 64.65 per cent of its population as multidimensionally poor.
NITI Aayog has based its index on National Family Health Survey reference period 2015-16 with technical support from the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
This indexing has been done on three major dimensions – Health, Education and Standard of Living. Under the health dimension, it has three indicators Nutrition, Child & Adolescent Mortality and Maternal Health. The dimension of Education covers Years of Schooling and School Attendance. While Standard of Living has a maximum of seven indicators; Cooking Fuel, Sanitation, Drinking Water, Electricity, Housing, Assets and Bank Account.
Interestingly, the adjoining West Bengal’s district of Uttar (North) Dinajpur which is to the east of Kishangaj, also is a bad performer on MPI with a Muslim population of 49.92 per cent which makes it a Muslim majority district though by a slender margin. It has the second-highest percentage of multidimensionally poor in the state. Shockingly, its twin district Dakshin (South) Dinajpur is way better with only 22.42 percentage found to be among the poor and it is placed at nine in MPI. But then it has only 24.63 per cent Muslims according to the data available on the internet.
What is also noticeable is the performance of West Bengals’ two districts of Darjiling and Jalpaiguri. Darjiling is on the north of Kishanganj and North Dinajpur while Jalpaiguri is to the northeast of North Dinajpur. While Jalpaiguri has a 22.02 percentage of poor on the MPI, Darjiling is the best performer of West Bengal on MPI with just 11.41 percentage of the poor population in the district. Muslim population in Jalpaiguri is considered to be 11.51 per cent while it is just 5.69 percentage.
From the above data, it is clear that the districts of Bihar’s eastern border area and the adjoining West Bengal’s area with a substantial Muslim population are very bad performers on MPI.
One more district of West Bengal’s Maldah makes this observation very clear. Maldah is also a Muslim majority district with 51.27 per cent of Muslims. Malda is the third-worst performer of the state on MPI as 35.70 per cent of its population are poor.
To briefly understand the level of deprivation, the twelve indicators of Kishaganj may be compared to that of Patna, the best overall performer on MPI. More than 55 per cent population of Kishanganj is undernourished while it is just below 43 per cent in Patna. In terms of maternal health, which is counted by at least four antenatal care visits, Kishanganj’s 47.74 percentage of the population is deprived of that while this figure is almost ten per cent less in Patna.
On the years of schooling indicator, more than 42 per cent of children of 10 years and above do not complete six years of schooling in Kishanganj. This figure for Patna is at 14.62 percentage. There is also a huge gap between the two on school attendance indicators as Kishanganj has a 20.19 percentage of non-attendance of school-age children while it is just above 7 per cent in Patna.
The gap in living standard dimension gets even wider. For example, on the housing indicator, 82.87 per cent population is deprived of proper housing, while it is 38.07 percentage in Patna. By proper housing, it is meant that the floor is made of natural materials, or the roof or walls are made of rudimentary materials.
On the indicator of using cooking fuel, Kishanganj’s 94.41 percentage of the population is deprived of it while this figure for Patna is just above 50 per cent. NITI considers a household deprived of cooking fuel if the primary source of cooking fuel is dung, agricultural crops, shrubs, wood, charcoal or coal.
Similarly, on other indicators like sanitation, drinking water, bank accounts and electricity Kishanganj’s performance is quite abysmal.
What makes Kishanganj such a bad performer?
UNFP’s former Bihar head Nadeem Noor told TwoCircles.net that “among many factors, one common factor is the distance from the ruling establishment.” Kishanganj is around 400 kilometres east of the state capital Patna.
Noor wondered while there are popular schemes like Ujjwala for LPG, Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal for tap water and housing schemes, still, the district is not performing as desired. “It seems that due to the lack of awareness and education the benefit of government schemes is not reaching the households,” he said.
Noor believes that strong demands and action from civil society would certainly help the region.
Kishanganj has been represented in the Parliament mostly by Congress and Muslim candidates which include the likes of M.J. Akbar and late Maulana Asrarul Haque of the Congress, late Syed Shahabuddin of Janata Dal, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain of the BJP and late Mohammad Taslimuddin of Rashtriya Janata Dal. Overall, Congress candidates got elected nine times from here for the Parliament. Only once in 1967, a non-Muslim candidate Lakhan Lal Kapoor was elected from here.
Akhtarul Iman, the state chief of All India Muslim Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen is of the view that the political leaders only cared for their ticket from the party and not for the people of the area. He told TwoCircles.net that “barring a few occasions the elected representatives of Kishanganj Parliamentary seat mortgaged their own people and did not raise their voice for the development of the area.”
The current Member of Parliament from Kishanganj seat Mohammad Jawed of the Congress told TwoCirles.net that “lack of education, employment, industry and heavy dependence on agriculture are the main reasons that make Kishanganj perform so poorly on MPI.”
Akhtarul Iman said that the Nitish Kumar government is ruling the state with the slogan of ‘development with justice’, but NITI’s figures negate the claims made by the government. “NITI’s stats are proof of what my party has been saying about Seemanchal and particularly Kishanganj which has suffered the most and is at the bottom of all major indices,” he said.
Imam said, “Seemanchal must be declared special zone and it should be given special grant under article 371.”
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Bihar’s chief told TwoCircles.net that “the Nitish Kumar government has allocated more than 11 crore rupees for the Mokama-tal area, why not such grant for Seemanchal?” Mokama is considered to be a wetland in the Patna district. Kishanganj M.P. Mohammad Jawed echoes a similar concern. “Less funding for the area is a big problem,” he said.
Kishanganj was identified as one of the ninety minority concentrated backward districts using eight indicators of socio-economic development and amenities based on 2001 census data by the Ministry of Minority Affairs of the central government. The purpose of this identification was to improve the indicators to the All-India level through a Multi-Sector Development Plan (MsDP). This MsDP is now known as Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram. Many in the know, however, say that the funding for MsDP has slowed down and many of its projects have been left unfinished.
Institute for Human Development had conducted a baseline survey of Kishanganj in 2008 sponsored by the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Indian Council of Social Science Research. The survey used eight indicators like literacy, housing, drinking water, electricity, health and toilets. There was a huge gap between the figures of Kishanganj and the All-India average.
Akhtarul Iman cites the example of the number of schools in 2012 in Kishanganj and Munger. While Kishanganj had only 17 High schools for almost 17 lakh population, Munger had 88 high schools for nearly 14 lakh population. He cites the case of the proposed Kishanganj centre of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) which is being run in a makeshift arrangement while it is allotted over 200 acres of land but is stranded in a legal battle and no central grant has been released.
Both Akhtrul Iman and Mohammad Jawed cite another common reason for the poor economical state of Kishanganj, which is “the devastating flood and no compensation from the government.” This has led to a vicious vicious cycle of poverty that leads to migration and a lack of education in the area.
Akhtarul Iman claims that before partition, Kishanganj and the Seemanchal areas were well off. There was a good amount of trade from Bangladesh. There was a famous Khagda Mela where traders from different parts of Bihar and abroad as far as Afghanistan used to visit. “But after partition, the Muslim-Patti was deliberately deprived. There was a systemic deprivation. This area was deprived of modern educational institutions,” he said.
Imam said that “only public awareness can cure the illness of Kishanganj and Seemanchal with more focus on education and political rights for the area.”
TwoCircles.net contacted the district magistrate to get his views on the latest ranking by NITI but there was no response from him. One senior official said that he cannot comment on the findings of NITI but according to him Kishanganj has performed much better on many indicators like housing, sanitation and electricity. He wondered why Kishanganj has been adjudged as the worst on MPI. NITI too has a note that the NFHS 4 (2015-16) precedes the full rollout of flagship schemes of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya), Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Former director of A.N. Sinha Institute Social Studies, Patna D.M. Diwakar told TwoCircles.net that “the insecurity of minorities which emerged from the partition is still hampering the development of Seemanchal.”
“Bihar has an uneven and unequal development structure. It is worth noting that people are less aware of the government schemes which could uplift the living standards of Seemanchal, but one needs to have money to get the benefits of those schemes. For example, if one gets a gas cylinder but that is useless without refilling capacity or if one does not pay the electricity bill, electrification programme does not work,” Diwakar said.
Diwakar called for a one-time effort to mainstream the development in the Seemanchal area.
Sami Ahmad is a journalist based in Patna, Bihar. He tweets at @samipkb.