Stories from the field
“The floods did not take away my spirit to learn…”
The Life Skills Training programme was initiated by the Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC), Government of Bihar (GoB), in collaboration with UNICEF for adolescent and young girls to be trained on essential life skills.
Bihar, 2 September 2008 : Women, children worst affected as Bihar’s water woes intensify
The 18-year-old maintains a stoic silence even as her family members clamour around to explain how she lost her firstborn son to the ice-cold waters of the Kosi River.
Bihar launches massive breastfeeding promotion campaign
A state-wide campaign to promote early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding was launched amidst much fanfare in Patna, the capital of the Bihar state, during the World Breastfeeding Week.
Meena Manch prevents child marriage
The Meena Manch (Girls’ Club) established in Islampur school of Goraul block in Vaishali district is unique. The first decision in the first meeting of the Meena Manch was to enroll all out-of-school children.
Baby Kumari Leads The Way
No one from her family had ever been to school. Everyone in the family worked, even Babykumari’s ten-year old sister. The daily income earned by the entire family ranged between Rs 50-60. But this was limited to whenever work was available.
Comprehensive newborn care initiative launched in Bihar
Health Minister Chandra Mohan Rai was also present at the inauguration and lauded the initiative. Reaffirming the commitment of the government towards children, he declared that similar units will be opened in 23 districts of Bihar in the next one year.
Bihar launches ICDS-IV
In a move slated to have extensive impact on the nutritional status of children in Bihar, the State Government launched a new phase of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Programme at a two-day workshop.
School children demand, get special toilet on World Water Day
As the world grapples with the challenges of unsafe water supplies contributing to 88 per cent of all diseases, student cabinets in this rural village of India’s eastern Indian state of Bihar have shown the way forward.
Radio Bachpan
‘Radio-o-o Bachpan-n-n!!!’ the voice of ten year old Shabnam trilled through the loudspeakers and the audience laughed and clapped with glee.
Bal Samvad Adalat helps in absolving 72 children
Fourteen-year-old Sanjay stood in the market place near his home when a violent fight broke out between two groups. When the police arrived on the scene, he was thought to have taken part in the fight and was arrested.
Bihar children take to streets against child labour
The children of Bihar took the centre stage of an awareness campaign against child labour.
Saving children's lives in Bihar: Partnering with NGOs for IMNCI
As Kavita Kumari sits at the Anganwadi Centre familiarising children with numbers and alphabets, mothers and grandmothers keep pouring in. They come with children who have high fever, a bruise that is not getting healed, even more serious complaints
400,000 girls achieve improved literacy at Summer Camps in Bihar
Phulwari Sharif, Patna: Khushnasiba Parveen, a student of class IV in a government-run primary school in Patna, had been going to school for four years but could not read a simple sentence.
Child marriage in Bihar: Three girls tell their own stories
Girls are generally married off early in the Indian state of Bihar. Most of them are still children, unprepared to bear either the burden of marital responsibility or childbearing.
Sister Sudha - educating marginalised girls
Sister Sudha Varghese has been sending girls to school from the Musahar community in Bihar for 20 years. Her institution, Nari Gunjan, has more than 1,500 girls enrolled and runs over 50 centres.
Schooling sputtering to a start in flood-affected districts of Bihar
A couplet written on the primary school building in Sitamarhi district's Olipur village aptly sums up the plight of its people.
A day with a vaccinator in Bihar
As the sun appears behind the palm fronds in Patna's Fatuah block, the extent of flooding is at once obvious.
Breaking free from child labour
Children get engaged in carpet making since families require as many hands as possible and the opportunity to go to school is all too often lost.
Community based interventions -- Bihar, Jharkhand
The Dular strategy promotes home-based changes in parents' day-to-day care practices.
Kicking to freedom
Imagine living in a hut that even a five year old would have to bend to enter
