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It
was 1950. My grandfather was a teacher at
Birlapur in West Bengal. He had hardly any
practical experience of farming, as right from
childhood he went out for his studies and
ultimately started working in far distant Bengal
sometimes in 1935 or so. He wanted to have many
changes in the way we lived in the then rural
Bihar and in the way we managed our farming. In
1950 in the summer vacation, he brought a mason
with him in the village and got constructed the
first septic tank toilet at our house. Even
today, many villages are not having any toilets
and how unsafe, inconvenient and shameful it is
for the women folk of the village to go out side
in open for toilet. He did bring a radio too in
those days that worked on battery, and was an
attraction for the people from all around the
villages. I do remember the younger brother of
my grandfather too. He was famous for his
generosity all throughout the district at least
in our community. Every time when I used to go
to my village in vacations till he was alive, he
would ask me many questions about the many
things including technical ones too. When I
returned from my first European tour, he was
really very happy and asked me about Berlin and
Germany. He was a fan of Hitler and Stalin. He
wanted to know about the life in villages of
Europe.
I wonder how many of Non-Resident Biharis keep
their kin living back in villages informed about
the progress other states are making. A huge
number of people from Bihar are working in
Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat. I wish when they
go back to their villages, they talk with the
people there about the agricultural revolution
and practices or other changes that are
happening in those states and how the people in
the states are living a better quality of life.
Will they think of and try to get some good
practices emulated back in their villages? Will
they discuss the entrepreneurship of the people
of their host states? Will they also talk about
the hard work they do to earn their own living?
Can the students of the engineering colleges of
Bihar who are employed outside the state go to
their colleges and talk to the faculty and
students about their shortcomings vs. the
advantages of the students from other states?
Can't these millions of migrants who have moved
out of the state for finding their means of
living bring some visible changes in the
mindsets for the people who are left out? Can't
they talk of shaking off caste-bias in political
alliances? Can't they talk to their Muslim
brethrens about the selfish appeasement policy
of the political parties?
Can't they themselves do something to improve
the quality of life in their villages by getting
constructed some public toilets through some
collaborative efforts? Can't some who are
teachers in other states go to their own village
school and impress on the teachers there to
improve the quality of teaching?
I wish some one from all the Non-residents from
a village take a lead and create a network of
all the persons living out of the state and
think of collectively contributing in some
manners to improve their villages. They can
encourage some young women of the village to
start teaching the kids of the village to attain
universal literacy. They can also encourage the
young boys to do better at studies through
telling them all the benefits and possibilities?
They can arrange some health check up camps in
their villages once every summer when go there
in marriage season. There are many things that
can be done with just an innovative approach.
I wish the idea could be spread.
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Comments: |
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The
article is thought provoking. In
fact, Biharis working outside are
the most disciplined and hardworking
lot; all of them also want to
contribute to the development, but
have failed to sensitize the
receiver, that is, those living in
the state. For bringing new
technology we have to change the
mindset of the people so that they
can respond.' - Vinod Bhanti -
Oct. 20, 2005 |
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