Friday, 15 April 2011

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Bhagalpur village follows custom dating to check female infanticide

Posted: 15 Apr 2011 09:48 AM PDT

DHARHARA VILLAGE (BHAGALPUR): In the backdrop of 2011 census, which saw Bhagalpur district marked with lowest sex ratio (879 females : 1000 males) against the state’s average of 916 and national average of 914, Dharhara village in Naugachia sub-division of Bhagalpur district is probably one place on this globe where birth offemale child is not only welcomed with open hands but, also rejoiced with planting of ten (10) Mango/Litchi tree saplings.

The village custom dates back to more than 200-years, which even octogenarians are unable to recall as to when the practice was adopted in Darhara, a nondescript village under Gopalpur block of Nagachia marked by almost 80% orchards of Mango and Litchi.

Unique it may sound, but the practice has not only been able to check the families’ craving for boy child but also has been able to stop female foeticide (sex selective abortion) in the area and has set an example for wherever female infanticide is/was practiced.

It also has been able to tackle the menace of dowry for the marriage of village girls, their higher education apart from schooling costs, said Jai Prakash Singh and added that the custom has other blessings in the form of green cover in more than 350 acres of area out of nearly 500 acres of village mouja.

“Exact date is not known but what we have inherited from our great grandfathers is more than 200-years’ old”, said Singh, sitting on a bamboo charpoy (cot) under a Mango tree in an orchard, while recalling the history of village custom.

All we can recall is that then landowners Umrao Singh, Manorath Singh and others initiated the custom in the village to celebrate the birth of girl child and memorialize them even after they were married-off to persons of other place, he added.

Echoes Ram Yatan Singh, Omprakash Singh and several other senior citizens. Hareram Singh said that the practice of planting fruit-bearing trees has brought economic independence to families of Darhara village. Girls, after completing school level of education, are pursuing higher education at different places and are getting employed also, said he.

“Thanks to age-old custom ! Education and marriage of girls is not a problem here”, said Bijay Kumnar Singh (mukhiya of Dharhara, Makandpur panchayat) and added that Mango-Litchi orchards here, because of village custom, has been able to ward-off the perils of pollution and lend a hand in controlling environmental imbalance.

Indeed it was our ancestors’ vision that we are able to wrestle against three social evils – “selective sex abortion (female foeticide), women illiteracy and dowry deaths besides contributing to the global efforts to control global warming” -, said Minoo Kumar, a young social activist from the village.

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Urdu website launched by Washington university

Posted: 15 Apr 2011 07:45 AM PDT

PATNA: Washington University on Wednesday launched a user-friendly Urdu website. Called Intermediate Urdu, it is the first website to fully utilize Nastalaq font as a web-based font so that the site natively displays Nastalaq, whether or not it is installed on the user’s computer.

Talking from Saint Louis, US, principal investigator M. J. Warsi said that this website is most useful for people with “a basic knowledge of Urdu or those who have taken two semester of language course in any university system.”

On the importance of the site, he said, “Intermediate Urdu comprises 16 interactive reading passages with corresponding audio and English summaries, dynamic online quizzes, and 13 video interviews of Urdu scholars. All content is directed towards students at the intermediate level and preparing them for advanced level proficiency.”

Among the content to read or listen is a speech of Maulana Azad, Bagh-o-bahaar, stories of Alif Laila and many others. This work has a great significance for development in the field of language pedagogy.

The website is developed with a grant from the South Asia Language Resource Center at theUniversity of Chicago. “We have plans to make ‘Advanced Urdu’ and then ‘Beginning Urdu’ websites to complete the sequence of Urdu learning,” said Warsi.

A gold medalist from Aligarh Muslim University and a West Bengal Urdu Academy award holder, Warsi is a native of Darbhanga district. Presently, Warsi teaches in the department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis, the best institution in the world for linguistic matters. It took a year and half to complete the project, said Warsi.

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European Union team praises Bihar for its efforts

Posted: 15 Apr 2011 03:44 AM PDT

PATNA: The chairperson of a European Union delegation visiting Bihar, Graham Watson, said here on Tuesday that the state, known as one of the poorest in India, has made remarkable progress. He was talking to newsmen after the delegation’s visit to rural areas of Vaishali district on Tuesday.

The delegation vice-chairman, Charalampos Angourakis, said he found people of Bihar confident about their future and beaming with aspiration, which, he noted, was a very important sign of a country moving forward. “Such a spirit is almost absent in European countries,” he said.

However, he found near absence of mechanization in farming in the rural areas of Vaishali. Some mechanization would have yielded better results for the farming community and their conditions would have been better, Angourakis said.

When asked about the condition of roads in Bihar, Watson said the roads here were better than those inBelgium and Romania. He was seconded by a delegation member, Franziska Keller.

Anna Rosbach รข€" a member of the delegation from Denmark – said she was moved by the friendliness and warmth of the villagers – boys, girls, men and women. Other member of the delegation said in unison that they were really impressed by the warmth of the people of Bihar.

Watson said European Union wanted to renew cooperation with India as well as Bihar. The delegation will meet chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday.

 

 

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Female literacy rate in Bihar picks up

Posted: 14 Apr 2011 09:43 PM PDT

While mass predilections in Bihar are still veering towards the male child, the Nitish Kumar government will be pleased with the provisional Census 2011 data for the State, which has indicated a 20 per cent jump in the State’s female literacy rate.

As per the report, literacy rates for women in Bihar have soared from 33.12 per cent in 2001 to 53.33 per cent this census year.

The State’s overall literacy rate has also shot up during the past decade, and now stands at 63.82 per cent — marking a 17 per cent jump from the 47 per cent in 2001; 21 of the 38 districts in the State have clocked up a female literacy rate higher than the State average, with the Naxal-affected Munger district topping the female literacy chart, recording an impressive 65.53 per cent.

SEX RATIO

However, the overall sex ratio has dropped to 916 females per 1,000 males from 919 in 2001, with a sharp fall in the child population (aged 0-6 years) from 942 girl children in 2001 to 933.

In the comparatively urban Patna, Bihar’s most populous district, the girl child (0-6 years) ratio has dropped to an alarming 899 girls per 1,000 boys from the erstwhile 923 in 2001.

In fact, six of the State’s eight urban districts including Patna, have shown a marked decline in the child sex ratio since 2001 — implying a lot of work for the special squads to be set up soon by the Bihar government for checking prenatal sex determination.

Of these, Bhagalpur and Begusarai have registered precipitous drops, standing at 934 and 911 from their erstwhile figures of 966 and 946 respectively.

DUBIOUS DISTINCTION

Gopalganj tops the sex-ratio list in the State with 1015 females per 1000 males, while Munger and Bhagalpur have the dubious distinction of having the lowest sex-ratios with both districts recording a bare 879 females per 1000 males, despite Munger having the State’s highest female literacy ratio.

 

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