Bihar

Bihar

The Ganga region of India (the northern plateau) is the poorest region of India, far behind either western or southern regions of India. And it continues to fall further behind. It has the highest birth rate in India, the lowest GNP growth, the highest infant mortality, the lowest literacy rate, and the lowest domestic and foreign investment rates.

The poorest state in this miserable region is Bihar.

Things change. Bihar was once a thriving, rich, educated area. In Bihar, Nolanda was once the world's largest and most learned university, with 10,000 students over 2000 years ago! This was one of the major cradles of civilization of the time, advancing the arts, mathematics and sciences which later made their way to Persia and then to Europe over a thousand years later. Many so-called discoveries made in Europe around 1300-1600 were in fact already known by the highly educated people of Bihar in the time BC.

Now it is a filthy, desolate hell-hole.

Here's a picture of the road between Bodhgaya and Gaya. The roadway itself was once paved, but large potholes now checker the surface. In many places the buses drive in the dirt next to the roadway since it is smoother than the roadway itself. On the road there are few if any private cars. No one can afford them, except corrupt officials. Instead, the road is filled with a mix of pedestrians, cows, bullock carts, bicycles, auto rickshaws, buses and trucks. In India, since everything goes at different speeds, it is considered polite to honk the horn incessantly to let others know that you may overtake them. Consequently, the roads are a frenetic, noisy scene.

The area is very dry and dusty. Everything has a red dusting, particularly near the roadway. Some areas are in cultivation, but much is just desolate. Irrigation systems are in limited use. In fact there just is not much infrastructure at all. The electricity goes out several times a day and the phones are unreliable. The municipal government collects the money from the people for the electrical bills, but recently the officials siphoned off the funds and didn't pay the utility company, so while we were there the utility company had instituted a brown-out to try to get paid. Health care is scarce, and since bandits have taken to kidnapping doctors on their way to work for ransom, the doctors are on strike. Now the bandits are starting to target teachers, so many of them refuse to go to the schools.

In much of India, especially the poorer north, sanitation is very poor. Litter is everywhere along the roadway. In some places it is scraped together into piles which are smoldering with toxic smoke from plastic bottles. Litter is frequently dumped into streams, which are very disgusting. Sewage systems are non-existent, and people relieve themselves in any convenient empty area, especially near water. As a result all surface water is very filthy. To walk past a stream without gagging is difficult --we cover our noses with cloths. The air is filthy. Climatologists talk of an annual brown cloud that forms over northern India, eventually drifting in to China and producing acid rain and deforestation. Breathing is difficult; everyone has a cough. The World Health Organization estimates that over 10% of the people in this area are carrying the tuberculosis virus. People here really do not hope to be completely healthy. They constantly fight dysentery, respiratory disease, and malnourishment.

Construction of homes here uses local bricks. Many of these are not fired, or not fired properly, so they are really just houses made of mud blocks. After the monsoon, the walls show definite erosion, and we see many that have caved in. The lack of knowledge and lack of materials both conspire to make housing very poor.

The people wash their clothes by beating them in the streams, or in open water faucets in the gutters along alleys. I read that the poorest people have just one set of clothes so never take them off to wash --they just splash them as best they can while wearing them.

This January, record cold set into all of northern India. Temperatures were near freezing at night. Homes are drafty and unheated, health is delicate, clothing sparse, and blankets threadbare. The newspapers in most of the northern cities began a death count, publishing new figures every morning of the people killed by the cold.

The government in Bihar is very corrupt. The police made a false arrest and beat a few teenagers the day before we arrived, and for once the people reacted. There were riots in Patna for several days. Fortunately the injuries were mild. The newspaper says that the police are hesitant to stop crime and kidnapping in Bihar because it is profitable. The police know who the criminals are, but they get their cut of the take so at best remain neutral. In some cases they seem to even aid the criminals.

We took a side trip to Varanasi, using the local bus and then the local train. The good news is they were both cheap. We traveled all day for about $1 each.

Catching the local bus was straightforward --as long as you have time and persistence. We asked about the bus and were directed to the south end of town. (Although the rickshaw drivers told us there isn't a bus, and the travel agents directed us to the expensive tourist buses.) We reached the south edge and inquired again, and were told to just keep going a little further east and we'd find the bus. Still nothing. We inquired again and were told to look for the gateway of the city. We looked around and found a simple arch over the road. Under it were more rickshaws. They would not give any information about the bus. We just started asking at every parked vehicle. We found one, a little smaller than a mini-van, which was going to Gaya. We weren't positive but thought maybe we had found the bus!

It wasn't even too crowded. The bus has two seats in the back, facing each other. Including us, there was one couple on each seat. But the bus didn't leave immediately. Instead, we started cruising town to find more passengers. We found one here, two there. Soon we were three to a seat. Then four to a seat, two up front with the driver, and one sitting on the floor. We headed out of town. But we found a few more people on the outskirts of town! A couple more crowded onto the floor, and others were added to the running boards, hanging on outside the bus. Eventually we had about 20 people!

The road to Gaya is so full of potholes that the bus could not go very fast. The bus had no suspension left and jarred mercilessly at every bump. We were in no particular hurry, having allowed several hours for a 30 minute journey, and as always, we did get where we wanted to go. We actually started to get off one stop too early, and the driver told us to get back on --we were downtown instead of at the train station. Gaya is not particularly safe (although it was mid-afternoon), and the driver was watching out for us.

At the train station we inquired about the train to Varanasi. To our surprise, there was a train on the platform at that moment, so we bought tickets. We were astonished at how cheap the tickets were and then quickly jumped on the train. It turned out it was not the express train that we anticipated, but instead a local, ordinary train. That means it stops at every cow crossing, and is at the bottom of the comfort scale. We stood for a while, and then eventually wedged a few inches of our fannies onto the hard wooden seats along with the rest of the crowd. People spit, dumped trash on the floor, and smoked. There were no windows --just bars, as in jail. The cold (record cold in fact) blew through. Instead of 3-4 hours on the express train, we spent eight hours on the local train.

Rod got into a great conversation with a local farmer. He was quite successful --he actually owned a tractor, a major investment. We discussed everything from politics, economics and agriculture, to families and lifestyles. I learned a lot about the daily life and trials of living in Bihar. He had no email, and I have no physical address, so we were unable to exchange addresses. I then engaged a student, although that conversation was more about the US than India. The people were straightforward in their answers about Bihar, but expressed no hope for improvement. They felt trapped in a horrendous situation.

Traveling in the local transportation is always challenging, but also generally rewarding. Sometimes this is a great way to meet people, since you are captive for many hours. India is definitely a country with both wealthy and middle classes, who we see in the upper class trains, but the local transportation also introduces us to the poorer people. This way we get a broader overall picture of the country.

Clearly the destitute state of Bihar is not the complete picture of India. There are green areas, clean areas, and wealthy people in India. But the Ganga region holds nearly 500 million people, and for most of them, this is their life.