A myriad of 'Bihars' within the current Bihar

Bihar has always been a curious state for professionals in the social sector. Bihar has been a cradle of religions, a center of power, and a state of diverse literature and cultural heritage that has also had its share of ups and downs associated with religion, caste, land, and gender inequalities and the power that comes with them. Moreover, it would be sufficient to say that the root of everything has been education.

The present state of Bihar is an amalgamation of many “Bihars,” i.e., there exists one Bihar that has it all, with generations receiving quality education and at the top of the social ladder. With generations working on their fields or others’ fields, the second type of Bihar has gradually risen and moved out of the village — i.e., so say this is the Bihar of “Babus”.

There exists another type of Bihar, which is made up mainly of migrants searching for a livelihood. Moreover, which has been struck by all the natural disasters and is considered highly vulnerable. In Bihar, some get educated, and some get left out.

The ‘ultra-vulnerable’ characterizes the fourth Bihar. Where the generations have lived at the mercy of landlords, with the government leaving the people on their own to survive, this is a Bihar found in the literature of ‘Renu and Premchand’. This Bihar is filled with multiple vulnerabilities, and the children cannot go beyond 5th grade. If they go beyond that, their chances of dropping out are high.

Educating girls and boys have traditionally been a difficult decision for families in Bihar, especially when the community is involved. Education determines a person's job type, and the nature of a person's job determines other essential things such as "married status and social status". During their higher secondary education, most students have to give up their dreams of studying their interest areas to pursue engineering, medicine, SSC or compete in UPSC exams.

Gender too plays a vital role in the interior areas, as the girl child is forced to study at the local colleges with grim futures despite their brilliance, in contrast to their male siblings getting to good colleges or coaching institutes. In Semi-urban areas of Bihar, one thing that has been a remarkable change is the view of parents regarding higher education of girls, where one or both parents encourage their daughters to pursue whatever career they want, as long as the dreams are confined to a select few options like Engineering, Teaching, Medicine or civil services. In the past, mothers did not influence what their children would study, but a closer look at the semiurban areas of Bihar reveals that women, especially mothers, are becoming more involved in the decision-making process of their children's education.

Communities, too, play a crucial role in how these career decisions are made in Bihar. Those who have had little success or are resourceful are looked up for guidance and mentoring and sometimes financial support by the families. A student's future career decisions are made by taking someone as a reference point who may have a different personality or have different resources at their disposal in the career journey. It is these decisions that cause a majority of students to become unemployed in the future. Social pressure has prevented them from seeking careers where they are passionate.

As one travels through Bihar looking for answers about jobs and education and meeting families from across the population strata, one crosses through one of the 'several Bihar's' mentioned in the opening lines.