Large hoardings outside the offices of the BJP and JD(U) in Patna proclaim how much the NDA government has done for women’s empowerment. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, leaders repeat at rallies that no other government has changed women’s lives in Bihar the way theirs has.
But about 250 kilometres from the capital, in the villages of Banka district, the reality is in stark contrast to the claims pasted across Patna’s walls.
In Kushaha village, Sindhu Kumari lives in a mud house with no toilet. The piped water promised under the nal-jal scheme hasn’t reached her home. Yet her biggest worry isn’t sanitation or water. It’s education.
The nearest college is nearly 15 kilometres away, and she can’t travel alone because of safety concerns. Sometimes her brother goes with her, sometimes her parents. “If there were a college nearby, I’d go every day,” says Sindhu, who wants to be a bureaucrat. “I can’t study properly at home. Whenever I sit down to read, someone asks me to do some work. All the household chores are for the girls.”
A few kilometres away, in Dhakwa, a Dalit-majority village in the same district, conditions are worse. Women still bathe and wash clothes at nearby ponds or riverbanks. Most homes here don’t have toilets either. “College is far, so I couldn’t finish my bachelor’s,” says Gangotri Kumari. “My family doesn’t allow girls to go out much. I’m preparing for general exams now. I want to be a teacher, to give better education to our children.”
Prime Minister Modi had declared India open-defecation-free in October 2019. But the reality in these villages tells another story. Many families still live without proper housing, despite promises to eliminate homelessness by 2022. As parties try to attract women voters with doles, questions about basic amenities linger on.
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