Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar remained shocked for a moment on Saturday when a 11-year-old boy urged him with folded hands to get him admitted to a private school as the quality of education in the government school in his village was “not up to the mark”.
A video clip of the incident, which happened at Kumar’s native village of Kalyanbigha in Nalanda district where he had gone to attend the death anniversary of his wife, has since been circulating on social media.
“Sir! Listen Na Pranaam…I want to study. Please help me. The teachers do not know how to give quality education at the government school of Neema Kaul,” he told the CM and pleaded with him to get him admitted in a private school.
The confidence of the 11-year-old boy impressed the CM who instructed officials to make arrangement for his studies.
Later, the boy, Sonu said his father Ranvijay Yadav works as a curd seller. “He consumes alcohol with whatever he earns or I earn. I don’t have money to attend a private school,” he told reporters.
The NFHS-5 report said 15.5 per cent of all men (that is, above 15 years of age in this case) consumed alcohol in Bihar. Liquor consumption was higher in rural areas than in urban Bihar. Percentage of people consuming alcohol on rural Bihar stood at 15.8 per cent in the NFHS-5, the same in urban regions stood at 14 per cent.
In Maharashtra, where prohibition is not in place, 13.9 per cent men consume alcohol. Both rural and urban areas of Maharashtra have lower liquor consumption ratio compared to Bihar. In urban Maharashtra, 13 per cent population consume liquor, the percentage goes up to 14.7 in rural areas.
In both states, rural areas have a higher percentage of people drinking liquor. Among women, both Bihar and Maharashtra had the same 0.4 per cent of the population consuming alcohol.
Within a year of prohibition, the number of murders and gang robberies decreased by 20%.
The number of riots fell by 13% and traffic accidents were reduced by 10%.
For the economy, spending per household rose: increase in sales of milk by 10%, cheese by 200%, two-wheeled vehicles by 30%, and electrical appliances by 50%.
In villages, brick houses are gradually taking the place of more rudimentary cottages since state Prohibition came into effect.
