[67th BPSC] Bihar: Human Development-II

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Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation
  • The preventive healthcare system depends substantially on the availability of safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation.
  • On comparing the data from two rounds of National Family Health Survey (NFHS), NFHS-3 (2005-06) and NFHS-5 (2019-20), it is observed that the state has achieved remarkable progress in supplying safe drinking water.
    • With regard to households with improved drinking water source, the state has recorded an improvement of 3.1 percentage points, from 96.1 percent in to 99.2 percent in 2019-20.
      • In case of India, the figures were much lower at 87.6 percent in 2005-06 and 95.9 percent in 2019-20.
    • In case of sanitation facility also, Bihar recorded notable increase in the last fifteen years, from 14.6 percent in to 49.4 percent in 2019-20, an improvement of 34.8 percentage points.
      • For India, these figures were 29.1 percent in 2005-06 and 70.2 percent in 2019-20 respectively.
  • Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal
    • Aiming to replenish water resources in Bihar and achieve affordability, sustainability in rural/urban water supply, the State Government has Mukhyamantri Peyjal Nishchaya Yojana ‘Har Ghar Nal Kal Jal’ programme in September 2016.
    • This aimed to provide adequate and safe potable water supply to all individual households in the state by means of tap connection through piped water.
    • This programme is primarily funded by the State Government’s own resources to ensure adequate and safe quality drinking water at an affordable cost to the entire population of Bihar.
    • Out of 1.15 lakh rural wards, 1.13 lakh wards were covered till January 2022, denoting an achievement of 98.5 percent against the target.
    • To address the need of sanitation, Swachh Bharat Mission, a mass movement was started by the Central Government to ensure a clean India. Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation, always emphasised on cleanliness, because it is key to healthy and prosperous life.
      • Keeping this in View, the Union Government launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on October 2, 2014. The mission covers all rural and urban areas.
      • The urban component of the mission is being implemented by the Ministry of Urban Development, and the rural component by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
      • The continuation of Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) till 2025-26 for sustainable outcomes has been approved by the Union Cabinet. The financial outlay for the same will be Rs. 1,41,600 crore.
      • The Central Government has also allocated over Rs 1.3 lakh crore for five years of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) (SBM-G) and ensured that there is no scarcity of funds.
    • Parallel to Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal, to address the sanitation problems in Bihar, two schemes have been started by the State Government —
      • Lohiya Swachh Bihar Abhiyan for rural areas and
      • Shauchalaya Nirman Yojana for urban areas.
  • Lohiya Swachh Bihar Abhiyan (LSBA)
    • The Lohiya Swachh Bihar Abhiyan (ISBA) is a programme in a mission mode, comprising SBM (G) of the Central Govemment and Lohiya Swachhata Yojana (LSY) of the State Government.
    • The cost sharing pattern for SBM(G) between the Central and State Government is 60:40.
    • The aim of the LSBA is to ensure universal sanitation coverage in Bihar. The programme is committed to make Bihar free from open defecation through proactive participation of the people with focus on Behavioural Change Communication (BCC).
    • In 2016, the implementation of the programme was transferred to the Rural Development Department from the Public Health Engineering Department.
    • The Block Development Officers (BDO) have been made responsible for implementation of LSBA at the block level.
    • One of the strategies of LSBA is to ensure a beneficiary-led and demand-driven model through behavioural change, and LSBA utilises the large SHG base of JEEViKA to promote behavioural change.
    • For LSBA, Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) has been introduced as a mandatory tool for behavioural change.
    • Under this programme, focus has been on capacity building of all stakeholders through inter-departmental convergence meetings, district-level workshops and reviews, residential trainings of BDOs, CLTS trainings to Master Trainers and ‘Swachhagrahis’, and finally, large-scale trainings of masons.
    • To ensure full transparency, many technological interventions have been made under LSBA. This includes
      • introduction of Public Financial Management System (PFMS),
      • Parent Child accounting system for Aadhar-based Direct Beneficiary Transfer,
      • website on policy implementation and expenditure details, and
      • Geo-tagging authentication for incentive payment.
    • At present, the PFMS programme has completed the following activities- registration of SBM (G); creation of agencies at state, district and block levels; linking scheme accounts to corresponding agencies; and registration of technical parameters.
    • The LSBA has extended its coverage from 22.4 percent in October, 2014 to cent percent at present, through construction of 1.21 crore Individual Household Latrines (IHHLs) and 8434 Community sanitary complexes.
    • The villages have self-declared to be Open Defecation-free (ODF), and 100 percent of them were also verified to be so.
    • More than 53 thousand Field Functionaries have been trained on CLTS and 72 thousand masons have also been trained in using the twin-pit toilet technology.
    • Under Ganga Action Plan (GAP), 472 villages of 307 Gram Panchayats across 12 districts of Bihar have declared and verified to be Open Defecation-free (ODF).
    • Under LSBA, 1.3 lakh dysfunctional toilets have also been made functional and all insanitary toilets have been made sanitary.
    • Under the ‘Swachh Gaon Hamara Gaurav’ campaign, one week per month was dedicated towards sustaining the ODF Status.
    • Online training on Covid-appropriate behaviour was imputed to approximately 22 thousand Swachhagrahis.
    • Information, Education & Communication (IEC) materials on Covid-appropriate behaviour, such as Swachhata Calendar, E-pamphlets, Audio-visual materials were developed and disseminated.
    • A total of 80 thousand Swachhata Calendars were distributed across all the schools of the state.
    • To grow awareness among the communities about Solid and Liquid Waste Management, flipcharts and Audio-visual materials were developed.
    • A major achievement was recorded in the construction of IHHL in 2017-18 and 2018-19, when the number of latrines constructed at 34.3 lakh and 61.3 lakh respectively.
      • Compared to these figures, there is a slight decline in 2019-20, when a total of 15.13 lakh IHHLs were constructed for APL and BPL families, and even lesser at 4.0 lakh IHHLs in 2020-21.
      • But this decline is due to saturation in coverage. Nearly all the needy households have already been covered, because of which there is continuous decline in construction of IHHLs in later years.
      • In 2020-21, three districts With relatively better in construction of IHHL were — Muzaffarpur (8.0 percent), Darbhanga (7.6 percent), and Purnea (7.0 percent).
  • During the last six years, the total expenditure on water supply and sanitation grew at the rate of 29.1 percent. Further, the capital outlay in this grew at the rate of 42.6 percent, which is really worth appreciation.
  • The physical progress under the state plan schemes has also improved.
    • Between 2016-17 and 2020-21, installation of new hand pumps replacing old ones increased by 1.4 times.
    • Similarly, during the same period, the achievement of ward-wise target under Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal Yojana increased by nearly 50 times, which is indeed an outstanding achievement.
    • In 2020-21, about 4400 new hand-pumps were installed and 41,693 wards were covered under water supply programmes of the State Government.
Education and Youth
  • Education is an important component of human development, as important as health. It improves one’s productive capacity, adds to one’s self-esteem, and transforms human beings into human capital. Besides its intrinsic value, education also helps people to acquire knowledge and skill, and enable them for fruitful economic and social participation.
  • All these contribute towards economic growth and human development. The three main priorities for education are — access, equity and quality.
  • To analyse the initiatives of the State Government to expand education in Bihar, we need to consider both educational inputs (number of educational institutions and financial expenditure) and outputs (literacy rate, enrolment ratio and dropout rates).
  • The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, introduced by the Central Government, proposes various measures to improve Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at all levels of education. This policy has replaced National Policy of Education, framed in 1986.
    • These measures include providing universal access and opportunity to all children, effective and sufficient infrastructure, safe conveyances and hostels (specially for the girl children), bringing back children who have dropped out of school, establishment of more high-quality higher educational institutions.
      • In this perspective, targets have been set by the State Government to achieve cent percent GER in preschool to secondary level by 2030. The new policy expands the mandatory schooling age-group from 6-14 years to 3-18 years.
    • The new system will have 12 years of schooling, with three years of pre-schooling at AWCs. All these will contribute towards growth and human development.
    • According to new NEP, the curricular and pedagogical structure for school will be guided by a 5+3+3+4 design, consisting of
      • (a) Foundational Stage (in two parts, 3 years of pre—schooling at Anganwadi + 2 years in primary school in Grades 1-2; both together covering the age-group 3-8 years),
      • (b) Preparatory Stage (Grades 3-5, covering the age-group 8-11 years),
      • (c) Middle Stage (Grades 6-8, covering the age-group 11-14 years), and
      • (d) Secondary Stage (Grades 9-12 in two phases, i.e., 9-10 in the first and 11-12 in the second, covering the age group 14-18 years).
  • Literacy Rate
    • Literacy is an important tool of social change. In 201 1, the literacy rate in India was 72.9 percent, with male literacy at 80.9 percent and female literacy at 64.6 percent.
      • In that year, the literacy rate in Bihar was much lower at 61.8 percent, with male literacy at 71.2 percent and female literacy at 51.5 percent.
    • However, the increase in literacy rate in Bihar was 17.9 percentage points, between and 2011, compared to 10.9 percentage points for the entire country.
      • It is worthwhile to note that this decadal increase is not only the highest among all the decadal growth rates in Bihar since 1961 , it is also the highest among all the states for the decade 2001 -11.
    • The gender gap in education has also come down in Bihar, as in India.
    • On comparing district-wise literacy rates by gender and residence, it is seen that the highest decadal increase has been recorded in Kishanganj (24.4 percentage points). On the other hand, Patna (7.8 percentage points) has registered the lowest increase in literacy late, mainly because it was already a high literacy district in 2001.
    • In 2011, 21 districts are placed above the state average in literacy rate and 17 districts below state average.
    • Regional imbalance in literacy:
      • The top five districts in terms of literacy rate are in south Bihar and
      • the districts in the north-eastern region of the state are severely disadvantaged in terms of literacy rate, in spite of some progress registered in the last decade.
  • Elementary and Secondary Education
    • The educational system of Bihar is divided into three levels elementary, secondary, and higher education.
      • At the operational level, elementary education is generally into two parts five years of primary education (Grades I-5), followed by three years of upper primary education (Grades 6-8).
      • Similarly, secondary education also has two levels two years of secondary (Grades 9 and 10) and two years of higher secondary education (Grades 11 and 12).
      • The last stage is of higher education, which is divided into two streams the academic stream and the vocational stream.
        • The academic stream is intended to prepare pupils for further study at a university or other higher educational institution,
        • while the vocational stream prepares pupils for work or for further vocational education.
  • Enrolment in Elementary Level
    • Enrolment at elementary levels has perceptibly improved in the recent period. The total enrolment at primary level in 2019-20 was 139.47 lakh, of which girls were 68.13 lakh and boys were 71.34 lakh.
      • In the same year, the enrolment for SC students at primary level was 27.27 lakh, and for ST students, it was 3.38 lakh.
      • Correspondingly, in upper primary level, the total enrolment in 2019-20 was 69.29 lakh. Of 69.29 lakh, 34.26 lakh were girls and 35.03 lakh boys.
    • On observing the trend between 2012-13 and 2019-20, it is seen that the gap between boys and girls is gradually narrowing at both primary and upper primary levels.
      • Overall, out of total enrolment of 208.76 lakh at the elementary level in 2019-20, the total enrolment of boys (106.37 lakh) was a little higher than that of girls (102.39 lakh).
    • The enrolment of SC and ST students between 2012-13 and 2019-20 at upper primary level has increased by 33.4 percent and 50.5 percent respectively, which indeed points towards declining social disparity in education.
      • Here too, the number of boys was higher than the number of girls.
      • More efforts are needed to lessen this gender gap.
    • There exists widespread disparity in enrolment among the districts in both primary and upper primary level in 2019-20. In primary level, the highest enrolment was in Madhubani (7.40 lakh), followed by East Champaran (7.27 lakh). Similarly, in upper primary level, the highest enrolment was registered in Patna (3.40 lakh) and East Champaran (3.33 lakh).
    • In contrast, two districts with lower enrolment in both the levels were Arwal and Sheikhpura.
    • As regards SC students, the best performing district for both the levels was Nalanda (2.67 lakh) and the worst performing district was Kishanganj (0.25 lakh).
  • Dropout Rate
    • A high enrolment rate for students does not carry much significance, if the drom)ut rates are also high. The dropout rate represents the percentage of students who drop out from a given grade in a given school year.
    • The phenomenon of substantial dropout before completing the desired education level is a problem in Bihar.
    • All the factors behind such dropout may be broadly distributed under three categories —
      • economic factors,
      • social and cultural factors, and
      • school environment and infrastructure.
    • In case of Bihar, all these factors are operational in varying degrees.
    • Between 2012-13 and 2019-20, the dropout in the primary stage decreased by 9.0 percentage and in upper primary level, it decreased by 7.9 percentage points.
      • In 2012-13, the dropout rate of girls in primary level was 26.3 percent, which decreased to 20.4 percent in 2019-20, implying a reduction of 5.9 percentage.
        • For boys, the dropout figures were 36.0 percent in 2012-13, which declined to 24.8 percent in 2019-20, a lessening of 11.2 percentage points.
      • In upper primary, 2012-13 and 2019-20, the dropout rate for girls declined by 1.4 percentage points and, for boys, this reduction was 12.3 percentage points.
    • Moreover, in 2019-20, the dropout of girls was less than that of boys in primary level. Similar trend was also followed in upper primary level where the dropout rate of girls was 37.3 percent and for boys it was 40.1 percent.
    • However, the dropout rates in secondary level were much higher than that in the elementary level. Such dropout rate was 63.5 percent in 2019-20 in secondary level, causing an increase of 0.7 percentage point from 62.8 percent in 2012-13.
      • Though the dropout rate for boys registered a decline of 4.4 percentage points, for girls, the change was in reverse.
      • Overall, the matter of concern is that still 36.5 percent of students in Bihar, who are enrolled in Standard 1, are not able to complete their secondary education.
    • The proportion of students completing their higher secondary education is even lower.
    • As regards gender differences, it is appreciable that, in elementary level, the dropout rates of girl students are lower than that for the boys.
      • But in secondary level, we still need to stride. Thus, the state has progressed much towards the goals of universalisation of elementary education and it should now try to further promote universalisation of secondary education.
      • This alone will generate more human capital to accelerate economic growth and development in the state.
    • In order to uplift the disadvantaged sections of society, specially those belonging to the SC and ST category, constant monitoring is required to enhance student’s enrolment, retention and attendance.
      • The dropout rates for SC and ST students have also decreased progressively during this period. The dropout rate of SC girls has been lower than that of SC boys throughout the period, in both upper pnmary and secondary levels. For primary level, it is nearly the same as that of boys.
      • It is noteworthy that the dropout rate for SC girls in upper primary level decreased by 9.3 percentage points during the period 2012-13 to 2019-20.
      • Also, during the same period, in primary and secondary levels, the dropout rate for SC girls has decreased by 2.6 and 2.7 percentage points respectively.
      • In case of ST students, the dropout rate for girls was lower than that of the boys for all the levels. This may be due to different incentive-based schemes of the State Government, which encourages girl students from this community to complete the entire schooling levels.
  • Number of Schools and Teachers
    • An important dimension of educational infrastructure is the number of teachers and schools in the state.
      • The total number of primary and upper primary schools in Bihar increased from 72,981 in 2016-17 to 75,295 in 2019-20. During this period, many primary schools have been upgraded to upper primary schools.
      • Of these, 75,295 elementary schools, 42,408 were primary schools and 32,887 were upper primary school.
      • In 2019-20, three best performing districts in terms of number of were — Patna (4002), East Champaran (3852) and Muzaffarpur (3201).
      • At the other end, three districts With the least number Of schools were Sheohar (425), Arwal (555) and Sheikhpura (581).
    • According to National Education policy 2020, a pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of under 30:1 will be ensured at the level of each school, and areas having socio-economically disadvantaged students will aim for a PTR of under 25:1.
      • The total number of teachers at primary and upper primary schools of Bihar increased to 4.3 lakh in 2019-20 from 3.9 lakh in 2016-17. In 2019-20, there were 1.7 lakh teachers at primary level and 2.7 lakh teachers at upper primary level.
      • According to the district-wise analysis, the best performers in 2019-20 were — Patna (23,653), Siwan (20,326) and East Champaran (20,037), whereas Sheikhpura (2264), Sheohar (2484) and Arwal (2977) were the worst performers.
  • Expenditure on Education:
    • The expenditure on education is considered as an investment because it acts as an input for the human capital.
    • In Bihar, the level of expenditure on education has steadily increased in recent years. However, in 2020-21, there is a slight decline in expenditure, which is due to disruption in regular activities or school during Covid-19.
    • In all the years during 2016-17 to 2020-21, the elementary education has the highest share of the total expenditure, compared to the other two categories.
    • In 2020-21, out of the total expenditure of Rs. 12,959 crore on education, Rs. 6054 crore (46.7 pervent) is spent on elementary education and rest of the amount (52.6 percent) is spent on secondary and higher education.
  • Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS)
    • The MDMS is a right-based scheme, which was introduced in 1995 to improve elementary education through higher enrolment of the children in the age group of 6-14 years and, hopefully, their retention in schools.
    • The scheme also has substantial implications for the nutrition status of the children and social equity. The scheme was extended in October, 2007 to cover the children of upper primary and the name of the scheme was changed as National Programme of Mid- Day Meal in Schools.
    • From 2015-16 onwards, the cost sharing pattern of MDMS is 60:40 for the Central and State Government.
    • In September, 2021 , the existing MDMS was renamed as Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN), as a modified version of the existing scheme. The modified scheme is proposed to be extended to students studying in pre-primary or Bal Vatikas of government and govemment-aided primary schools, in addition to all the children studying in elementary classes.
      • The concept of Tithi Bhojan of providing special food to children on special occasions and festivals will be introduced.
      • The idea of School Nutrition Gardens will be promoted in schools to give children a first-hand experience with nature and gardening.
      • Also, social audit of the scheme will be made mandatory in all the districts.
      • There will also be special provisions for supplementary nutrition items to children in aspirational districts and districts with high prevalence of Anaemia.
      • Other activities will also be introduced, like cooking competition, involvement of Farmers ‘ Producer Organizations and Women Self Help Groups in implementation of the scheme ‘Vocal for Local’, field visits, etc.
      • To meet the objectives of the scheme, the guidelines prescribe the nutritional content in the mid-day meal.
    • In 2020-21, 75.65 lakh students of primary classes and 42.01 lakh students of upper primary classes were availing the MDMS benefits.
      • On an average, the coverage of MDMS during 2015-16 to 2020-21 was 64.4 percent in primary level and 60.9 percent in upper primary level. This scheme has played an important role in curbing dropouts from the schools to a great extent.
    • In 2020-21, the of MDMS in 24 districts was above the state average of 67.2 percent at the primary level, and 21 districts reported a coverage of more than the state average of 70.7 percent in upper primary schools,
      • Three best performing districts at primary level are — Sheohar (70.00 percent), Araria (69.73 percent) and Kishanganj (69.46 percent); whereas Buxar (61.28 percent), Darbhanga (63.51 percent) and Vaishali (64.17 percent) were lagging in performance.
      • In upper primary level, three best districts are — Sheikhpura (75.8 percent), Madhubani (73.5 percent) and Khagaria (73.4 percent) and three worst performers are — Rohtas (68.0 percent), Nalanda (68.1 percent) and Madhepura (68.5 percent).
    • Although there has been expansion in the coverage or MDMS in recent years, more efforts are required to attain cent percent coverage.
  • Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV)
    • The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) scheme was launched by the Central Government in August, 2004 for setting up residential schools at upper primary level for girls belonging predominantly to the SC, ST, OBC and minorities in difficult areas.
    • The scheme is being implemented in educationally backward blocks where the female rural literacy is below the national average and gender gap in literacy is above the national average.
    • The scheme provides for a minimum reservation of 75 percent of the seats for girls belonging to SC, ST, OBC or minority communities, and in the remaining 25 percent, girls from families below poverty line are given priority.
    • Since the KGBV has been merged With the SSA programme, as a separate component. In 2020-21, there were 535 KGBVs in the state for the students of Grades 6-8, in which 57,175 girls were enrolled.
    • Under SSA, facility of girls’ hostels was also extended to higher secondary level. This would provide the facility of at least one residential school for girls in Grades 9-12 in each educationally backward block, which does not have residential schools under any other scheme.
    • Presently, 141 KGBVs have been approved for Grades 9—12, of which 82 are operational In the state. There are 4160 enrolled students.
  • Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)
    • Rashtriya Uchchalar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, which aims to achieve the broad objectives of access, equity and excellence in higher education.
    • The funding for the scheme flows from the Central Government to the State Governments, and then to the State Higher Education Councils, before reaching the identified institutions.
    • The funding ratio is 60:40 between the Central and State Governments.
    • The scheme was launched in 2013 with an aim of providing strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions.
      • Till date, an amount of 372 Crore has approved, of Which 224 Crore is approved as Central Share and 148 crore as State share.
  • Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan
    • Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan is a crucial programme for the school education Sector, extending from pre-school to Class 12.
    • The scheme has been prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
    • It subsumes three schemes Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (S S A), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), and Teacher Education (TE) — and was launched in 2018-19.
    • The fund sharing pattern for the scheme between Centre and State is 60:40 for non-special category states like Bihar.
    • Under the scheme, the major interventions proposed across all levels of school are — Universal Access including Infrastructure Development and Retention, Gender and Inclusive Education, Digital Initlatives, RTE Entitlements (including uniforms and textbooks), Pre-school education, Vocational education, Sports and Physical education, etc.
    • The major objectives of the scheme are —
      • provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students,
      • bridging social and gender gaps,
      • ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education,
      • promoting vocationalisation of education,
      • supporting states in implementation of RTE Act 2009, and
      • Strengthening and upgradation of SCERTS, State Institutes of Education, and District Institutes for Education and Training (DIET) as nodal agencies for teachers’ training.
    • In 2020-21, a total of Rs. 1977.10 Crore was released by the Central Government to Bihar Education Project ( BEP), which is around 44.4 percent of the approved amount. The State Government also released a matching amount of Rs. 1391.40 crore, which stands at 46.9 percent of the state’s share.
      • Both in 2019-20 and 2020—21, the major share of the fund received by BEP was for elementary education.
  • Higher Education
    • The higher education sector in Bihar has witnessed a tremendous expansion in terms of the number or universities, university-level institutions and colleges over the years.
    • The importance of higher education in contributing towards the development of human potential is even more for disadvantaged states like Bihar.
    • The progress of higher education in any state is assessed in terms of its institutional capacity. The educational institutional capacity is measured by the number of educational institutions — universities and colleges, number of teachers and number of Students seeking higher education.
    • In 2019-20, 35 universities were in existence in Bihar, of which
      • 4 were central universities,
      • 17 state universities,
      • 5 institutes of national importance,
      • one state open university and
      • another six were private universities.
      • Also, there is one institute under State Legislative Act and one deemed university.
    • There are also 15 research institutes in the state.
    • In 2019-20, there were 277 government colleges and 588 local body colleges. Providing professional training to prospective school teachers is another component of the higher education system.
    • In 2020, there were a total of 176 vocational training institutes, of which 60 were teacher training centres, 55 were engineering colleges and 61 polytechnic colleges in the state.
    • Presently, 87 colleges and 7 universities in the state NAAC Accreditation.
  • Initiatives and Outcomes in Education Sector
    • In 2020-21, under Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana, 3.76 lakh unmarried girls from all categories, who have passed in their intermediate examinations, have received Rs. 10,000 each through Direct Benefit Transfer (DB T).
    • Upto 2020-21, 5082 new higher secondary schools were established and a plan has also been prepared for 2021-22 to set up similar new higher secondary in remaining 3304 Panchayats, so that all the 8067 Panchayats are covered.
    • Bihar School Examination Board has constructed examination hall-cum-regional office in nine commissionary headquarters of the state — Patna, Munger, Gaya, Purnea, Saharsa, Chhapra, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga.
      • The CCTVs have also been installed which can keep a vigil on 4-5 thousand students at a time. The speciality of these examination halls is that live monitoring of them can be done by both District Magistrate Control Room and Bihar Board Control Room through webcasting.
    • Bihar Board of Open Schooling and Examination (BBOSE) is an autonomous organisation of the State Government.
      • BBOSE is a registered Government Society under Societies Act. It is an open and distance learning institution, set up on the lines of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), under Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
      • In academic year 2019-20, a total of 75,933 students were enrolled.
  • Youth and Culture
    • Young people of 15-29 years age-group constitute 28 percent of Bihar’s total population, as per the projected population figures for 2021. This cohort represents Bihar’s future in all spheres of life, including economic and social spheres. So, youths are the most valuable human resource of every society.
    • The art and culture of Bihar are a vast continuum, evolving incessantly since time immemorial. Therefore, the preservation of Bihar’s rich cultural heritage and promotion of all forms of art and culture are of considerable importance. For overall development of youth and culture, the State Government has taken numerous steps.
  • Capacity Building Of Youths using Digital Platform:
    • Digital learning was provided to students of Ekavalvya Residential Sports Training Centre, who are enrolled under Mukhyamantri Khel Vikash Yojana, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
    • Out of 41 sanctioned Ekalavya Residential Sports Training Centres, 30 centres are currently operational in digital mode with 350 registered players.
    • More than 70 percent players using android mobile facilities are taking guidance in techniques of sports through Video calls.
  • Mukhyamantri Khel Vikas Yojana :
    • Under this scheme, stadiums will be constructed in all the blocks of Bihar to promote sprots among rural youths.
    • Since 2008-09, approval has been given for construction of 353 stadiums, of which 169 have already been constructed. Rest 84 stadiums are under construction, and for the remaining 100 stadiums, the construction work has yet not started.
    • Under this scheme, Sports equipment of Multi Gym and Open Gym have also been Setup in 36 districts of Bihar.
  • Player Welfare Fund :
    • The players of the state, according to their position at the national level, are provided with subsidiary grant to avail the facility of sports kit, treatment and they go through the courses of National Institute of Sports.
    • In 2020-21, a sum of 21.02 lakh was provided as subsidiary grant to 70 players.
  • Renovation of Moin-ul-haq Stadium : The work to reconstruct Moin-ul-haq stadium and to develop it as an integrated sports infrastructure cum international level cricket stadium is under progress.
  • Establishment of Bihar Sports University:
    • As per the commitment of Atmanirbhar Bihar ke Saat Nishehay-2 (2020-25), the State Government aims to establish Bihar Sports University to develop youths as Sports trainer, Sports specialist, Sports manager, physical trainer and technical specialist of sports.
    • Presently, Bihar Sport University Act, 2021 is passed under the provision of this Act, creation of post of different cadre for the proper functioning of the Sports University is under progress.
  • Come and Play Scheme:
    • In the outdoor stadiums of the State, the Come and Play scheme will be implemented at a large scale for the boy and girl players of Bihar.
    • In the first phase, nine games (athletics, volleyball, kabaddi, kho-kho, taekwondo, badminton, football, and yoga) are to be organized at the Patliputta Sports Complex and two games (football and taekwondo) at Manoj Kamalia Stadium, Patna city.

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