Bihar And it's Caste Map

Two hundred and fifty one years ago, three beleaguered rulers came together to fight the English East India Company. The outcome of that historic battle, fought at Buxar on the banks of the Ganga, in 1764, changed the destiny of India. The 40,000-strong Indian army was drawn from three princely states, whose rulers were Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal; Shuja-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Awadh, and the Mughal Emperor in Delhi, Shah Alam II. The English, led by Major Hector Munro, had an army that was only 10,000-strong.

The Mughal army was four times the size of their English opponents, but their generals and soldiers were poorly coordinated. Lack of trust and one-upmanship was rife. Munro exploited the internal differences amongst the Indians to land a debilitating blow to the Mughals. The victory of the East India Company in Buxar decisively established the British as the pre-eminent power in India, a state of affairs that would take two centuries of bitter struggle to alter.

Sitting in the drawing room of his 11 Akbar Road residence in New Delhi, with the air conditioning on in full blast, BJP’s battle commander Amit Shah frequently refers to the Battle of Buxar while charting his party’s strategy for Bihar. The BJP president believes that the course of Indian politics over the next 15 years will be decided in the "Battle of Bihar" circa 2015.

Shah’s calculation is simple. If the wobbly secular alliance was to trounce the rampaging BJP army, the halo of invincibility built around Narendra Modi will crumble. His now-dispirited opponents will find a template they can hope to replicate in other states where elections are due over the next three years. However, if Modi’s army is able to withstand the three-pronged attack, it will shatter the confidence of the Janta alliance and show that the Modi wave is insurmountable even in the face of opposition unity.

Like Major Munro of the East India Company, Shah too realises that he is up against a numerically superior force. The combined vote share, after the 2014 general election, of the Janata Dal United [JD(U)], Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was 46 per cent while the aggregate vote share of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) combining the votes of the BJP, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) was 39 per cent. This means that the BJP rides into the Bihar polls with a seven per cent vote deficit. In a two-cornered fight in a caste-obsessed state like Bihar a seven per cent deficit can be difficult to surmount.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the NDA swept the Bihar polls, winning 31 out of the 40 seats in the state. The RJD-Congress-NCP alliance bagged seven and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) won only two. If this ratio was replicated in the Assembly elections, the NDA would be comfortably placed at 171 seats, while a fragmented opposition would have bagged only 68 in the 243-seat Assembly. But the scenario in Bihar’s battlefield changes completely once the opposition comes together under one umbrella. An extrapolation of the Lok Sabha trends on Assembly segments, done by Cicero for India Today, suggests that the NDA’s projected tally would crash from 171 seats to 86 while the Janata alliance's tally would surge to 148 seats with the RJD, JD(U), Congress and NCP fighting together, instead of the mere 68 leads that they would have managed separately.

The BJP realises that the only way to beat a united opposition is to split the caste alliance that the Janata coalition is hoping to forge through the coming together of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish and Rahul Gandhi. For the last ten years the numerically significant Yadav supporters of Lalu have been dislodged from the levers of power by the Kurmi and Koeri supporters of Nitish. While political compulsion has forced the chieftains to join hands, there is a lot of bad blood among the rival castes on the ground and this is the divide that the BJP hopes to exploit.

The last seven weeks have been bad for the BJP. The party that proudly proclaimed that there had been no scams in the first year of the Modi government has stumbled from one embarrassment to the next. It started with foreign minister Sushma Swaraj getting exposed for helping Lalit Modi get travel documents in the United Kingdom; and then emerged Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje’s questionable business dealings with the former Indian Premier League (IPL) czar. The Vyapam fire engulfing Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is only the latest embarrassment to tarnish the clean image of the Modi-fied BJP.

Shah knows that knives are out for him within and outside the BJP. Prime Minister Modi has firmly established himself as the first among unequals and his position at the top of the current BJP pantheon is unquestionable, at least for the time being. But Modi’s top commander is the one who is most vulnerable. Shah was able to craft, for himself, an image of the modern Chanakya after registering impressive victories in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election and in the Assembly elections that followed in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and a better-than-ever-showing by the party in Jammu and Kashmir. But the embarrassing defeat of the BJP Goliath at the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) David, in the Assembly polls in Delhi took some of the sheen off Shah’s impressive election record.

Shah survived the Delhi debacle, but he knows that another Assembly election defeat, this time in the crucial battlefield of Bihar, could imperil his plans to get re-elected as the BJP president. Shah is currently serving out the residual part of Rajnath Singh’s term as party president and elections for the party's top post are due in January, 2016. Shah knows that if he can lead the BJP to power when the Bihar polls are held sometime in September-October his re-election to the top job in the party would be a mere formality. However, if the BJP loses in Bihar, getting another term as the party president might not be all that certain.

Increasing murmurs are being heard within the BJP over Shah’s style of functioning. He has relegated seniors like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to the wilderness of the Marg Darshak Mandal, which incidentally has not met even once since its inception. Shah has instead chosen to build a core team of rooted organisational workers, comprising old-time RSS swayamsevaks like him, who shun publicity and like to work from behind closed doors. His meetings exude the familiarity of an old boys RSS club and often stretch way past 1am in the night. Detractors in the party find Shah aloof and unapproachable. The president has strong likes and dislikes and many leaders have found it difficult to adjust to their boss’ demanding working style.

Shah knows the only way to counter his critics within the party and the opposition outside is to win the Bihar elections in style. He tells India Today that he has paid more attention to mapping the most micro details for this Bihar elections than in any poll before this. He says, "I have a plan for every block, panchayat and booth in the 243 Assembly seats of the state. For the last six months our panna pramukhs have been going door-to-door in each village and mobilising support for the party. In every village, we know which are the houses that are likely to support us, who is undecided and who is opposed to us."

Shah shows a detailed excel sheet which has a breakup of the caste composition of voters in every Assembly seat. Alongside every village name is a list of local and central leaders who are being sent to canvass there. Leaders are picked on the basis of their caste and their likely appeal among the dominant community in that constituency. Shah claims he has a plan for every seat for every day over the next two months. Every evening his office receives an update on the day’s activities and the response among the voters.

Shah’s backroom team has divided the seats in Bihar into three categories. The first are the seats where the BJP has traditionally dominated. Here the strategy is to spend minimal time and effort and to ensure that the morale of the cadre stays high and local leaders maintain a constant connection with the voters.

The second and most important category is of those seats that are likely to witness pitched battles. Here the NDA and the Janata alliance are equally strong going into the polls and the battle can go either way. Shah has rolled out a heavy bombardment of election resources and senior BJP leaders are being deputed on high frequency on these seats. Special emphasis is being given to candidate selection. Among the strategies being looked at by the NDA is to put up mostly non-Yadav candidates on Yadav-dominated seats where the RJD fields a strong Yadav candidate. Conversely, the party plans to put up Yadav candidates on Yadav-dominated seats which fall in the JD(U)’s quota and where Nitish may have put up a non-Yadav or Kurmi candidate. In a caste cauldron like Bihar the idea is to ensure that the BJP fields candidates whose caste unites voters opposed to the candidate put up by the Janata alliance.

The third category of seats is where the BJP has a little chance of winning. Here the party is working on a strategy to split the ranks of its opponents by propping up rebel candidates and by allying with frenemies like Pappu Yadav's Jan Adhikar Manch. Pappu Yadav is a former aide of Lalu and has over time built up a strong presence in the 37 seats of the Kosi-Seemanchal belt. Because of differences with Lalu, he has recently set up his own party and has been playing footsie with the BJP. While Shah cannot afford to ally publicly with the tainted Pappu Yadav, a behind-the-scenes alliance is very much on the cards, with the idea being to clandestinely support strong Yadav candidates of the Jan Adhikar Manch to eat into RJD’s vote share among the Yadavs. An enemy’s enemy is always a useful friend.

Shah feels that unlike the Lok Sabha election of 2014, religion is not going to play much of a role in the battlefield of Bihar. According to his calculation, religion comes into play only if the majority community feels that the minorities are being given preferential treatment and that their interests are being deliberately ignored. Because of the actions of the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh, the majority community joined forces before the Lok Sabha election in the state. The polarisation that started in western Uttar Pradesh travelled eastwards along the Ganga and delivered a bumper harvest of seats for the BJP.

But in Bihar under Nitish’s rule there is no similar resentment among the majority community against the minorities. So religious polarisation, as an election strategy , is not going to yield results. The battle will be won or lost by the alliance that is able to stitch the more powerful caste combine. Broadly speaking, the BJP is assured of the support of the Brahmins, Rajputs, Bhumihars and other upper castes. The party is also hopeful of the strong backing of many of the middle castes like the Kayasths and the Baniyas. But taken together, these add up to only about 31 per cent of the voting population of Bihar. In a two-pronged contest, less than one-third the votes is hardly enough to be assured of a strong showing at the hustings.

The Janata alliance, on the other hand, is almost guaranteed the support of the numerically-significant Muslims who are estimated to be about 17 per cent of the voting population. Lalu is also banking on the support of a majority of his Yadav community who make up roughly 15 per cent of the state’s voters. Nitish is hoping that he will be able to add to the Janata alliance a majority of the Kurmi and Koeri vote bank, that taken together, adds up to about ten per cent of the total voters. The potential core vote bank of the Janata alliance is about 40 per cent.

The swing voters in Bihar will be the Dalits and the Mahadalits who constitute roughly 15 per cent of the voters. The multiple Mahadalit castes were given special treatment by Nitish through social and economic schemes and the Bihar chief minister is hoping that they will reward his effort with votes. The BJP, on the other hand, is hoping that with the help of Paswan and the newly-inducted Jitan Ram Manjhi, it will be able to wean away a large part of the Dalits and Mahadalits from under the Janata umbrella. The actual electoral pull of Manjhi will be a key factor in determining how the NDA performs at the hustings. As of now, his public meetings are being well received and he seems to have emerged as an icon for a large part of the Mahadalit community. The question is: can he turn that appeal into votes?

One of the other key area of focus for Shah is to chip away at the Yadav vote bank of the RJD. During the Lok Sabha election, CSDS post-poll data showed that almost 19 per cent of Bihar’s Yadavs voted for the BJP while almost two-thirds voted for the RJD. Prominent Yadav leaders like Ram Kirpal Yadav have been encouraged to defect from the RJD and given ministerial berths at the Centre to bolster the BJP’s appeal among the Yadavs. After the break up of the alliance with Nitish, another Yadav chieftain, Nand Kishore Yadav, was made the leader of the opposition in the Bihar Assembly.

Re-crafting Bihar’s caste calculus is an audacious strategy that is drawing a mixed response. Leading Patna-based political analyst Shaibal Gupta, founder member and secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute, told India Today, "BJP’s strategy to consolidate and micro-manage backward castes in Bihar is absolutely unprecedented. This strategy will not only change the power configuration within the BJP but it will also build bridges with other power centres. In the new scheme of things Brahmins are being marginalised and persons from Other Backward Castes being brought into centrestage by the party."

The opposition, though, is far from impressed. Senior leader of the JD(U), Pavan Verma, hit out at the BJP for playing what he calls a blatantly casteist game before the polls. "The BJP claims that Modi’s appeal transcends caste politics but in reality it is the most casteist party in India. Before the Lok Sabha polls they suddenly projected Modi as an OBC face and entered into a completely opportunistic alliance with an ideological foe like Paswan. Now the BJP realises that the sheen of Modi is wearing off because they have not been able to deliver on their promises, so they are forced to play the caste card. What Nitish is doing instead is using the lure of development to appeal to people beyond caste."

The recently-concluded Bihar legislative council poll results, which were being touted as the semi-finals before the big Assembly polls later this year, show the NDA in front, but the gap is too narrow for comfort. Of the 24 legislative council seats the BJP won 12, its ally LJP won one, while the Janata alliance members won ten.

Rarely has the course of national politics been so dependent on the results of a state election. The time for strategising is drawing to a close and a battle royale is about to begin. Like in the Battle of Buxar, the numbers on paper may count for little once the battle begins.

Different castes (percentage) in Bihar

(Source: different media reports)

Muslims	14.7
Yadav	14.4
Mahadalit	15
Baniya	7.1
Koeri	6.4
Brahmin	5.7
Rajput	5.2
Kurmi	5
Bhumihar	4.7
Kayasth	1.5

 Castes with NDA

Brahmin	5.7
Rajput	5.2
Bhumihar	4.7
Kayasth	1.5
Baniya	7.1
Koeri	6.4

Castes with Secular Alliance

Muslims	14.7
Yadav	14.4
Kurmi	5

Castes NDA is eying for

Mahadalit	15
Yadav	14.4

Castes Secular Alliance is eying for

Mahadalit	15
Koeri	6.4
Brahmin	5.7
Rajput	5.2

Bihar Lok Sabha 2014 segment-wise seats (Old Alliance)

Party	Seats lead	Vote share (percentage)
BJP+LJP+RLSP	171	38.77
INC+RJD+NCP	50	29.75
JD(U)	18	15.78
Others	4	15.70

Bihar Lok Sabha 2014 segment-wise seats (New Alliance)

Party	Seats lead	Vote share (percentage)
BJP+LJP+RLSP	89	38.77
INC+RJD+JDU+NCP	148	45.53
Others	6	15.70

Lok Sabha 2014 election results

Party	Seats won	Vote percentage
BJP	22	29.86
LJP	6	6.50
RLSP	3	0.12
INC	2	8.56
NCP	1	1.22
JD(U)	2	16.04
RJD	4	20.46
CPI	0	1.17
CPI(M)	0	0.30
BSP	0	2.17
Independent	0	4.34

Ranvir Sena And Justice to Dalits

Ranvir Sena is an upper-caste landlord militia mainly based in Bihar, India. This group was formed by Bhumihar and Rajput landlords, to stop aspirations of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people by violent means and their organized killings.
 It carried out actions against Dalits and other members of the scheduled caste community as well as the Naxalites as they have strong support from judiciary and bureaucracy.
The Ranvir Sena have been connected to a number of massacres including Laxmanpur Bathe. It has, on several occasions, been accused of human rights abuses. It is regarded as a terrorist group and classified accordingly by the Government of India.
 Normally, the group openly claims responsibility for its crimes. The Ranvir Sena has committed violent acts against Naxalite sympathisers and other members of the militant communist party. The Bihar State government banned the Ranvir Sena in July 1995 and since then the Ranvir Sena remains proscribed. A statue of ranvir baba is situated in belaur village.
 On 8 October ranvir jayanti is celebrated in the village. In 2015, Cobrapost exposed many BJP leaders especially like Murli Manohar Joshi and C. P. Thakur alongside former PM Chandra Shekhar associated with Ranvir Sena in Bihar Dalit massacres while governments of Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi did nothing to get justice for dalits


Mass Killing And Crimes

They killed 10 workers in Haibaspur on the 23 March 1997. They wrote the name of the organisation in blood on the village well before they left. Most of the people Ranvir Sena killed that night belonged to families allegedly supporting Party Unity, a communist group

On 11 July 1996, 21 Dalits were slaughtered by the Ranvir Sena in Bathani Tola,Bhojpur in Bihar in 11 July 1996. Among the dead were 11 women, six children and three infants. Ranvir Sena mob killed Women and Children in particular as per the design so as to demolish any future resistance which they foresaw.

On 1 December 1997, they killed 61 Dalits, which includes - 16 children, 27 women and 18 men with guns. The same night,disfigured and shot to death 5 teenage girls.

Ranvir Sena said about the killings:

"We kill children because they will grow up to become Naxalites. We kill women because they will give birth to Naxalites."

After, they killed 8 low caste people who had ferried them across the river after the attack.

On 25 January 1999, there was a massacre of 22 dalit men, women and children by Ranvir Sena in the village of Shankarbigha, Jehanabad due to their alleged Naxalite allegiance. There was another massacre two weeks later in the neighbouring village of Narayanpur, where Ranvir Sena killed twelve lower-caste people.

In April 2012, members of the Ranvir Sena were acquitted of Bathani Tola massacre in Bihar

Education in Bihar: Still long road ahead

In the north Indian state of Bihar, education has been improving faster than in the rest of the country. But as this column reminds us, Bihar is starting from the bottom. For education to continue to improve, Bihar needs to universally provide drinking water facilities, separate toilets for girls in schools, and more teachers and classrooms per student.

One thing that development economists agree on is the importance of education. Put simply, if development is to be sustainable, people need to be better educated. Just looking at economic output, education contributes to growth by increasing the level of human capital of the workforce – as India has discovered in the IT sector. Looking beyond the statistics, education can equip people with the tools for a more fulfilling and enjoyable life. 

The government of Bihar, one of India's poorest states, has recently undertaken several policy initiatives to make education more affordable and accessible to children. These initiatives have focused on reducing the ‘opportunity cost’  of schooling and providing incentives for enrolment and performance.

The state of education in Bihar

Using data from District Information System for Education (DISE), we find that starting in 2006-2007 the enrolment rate at the primary level in Bihar – has been increasing and is now higher than the median  of the 20 large states. However, the enrolment rate at the upper primary level is right at the bottom of the 20 major states in India with less than half of eligible children attending school. Since the DISE enrolment data for primary grades are not available for Bihar after 2007, we use an alternative measure from Assessment Survey Evaluation Research (ASER) called the ‘out of school rate’ which is the percentage of school age children not attending school. This measure is far less impressive for Bihar. We find that Bihar has a higher out of school rate than the median state in India, though the percentage has been declining over time. In line with the enrolment numbers, the out of school rate is higher among older children. 

We use ASER scores for Reading and Maths as our measures of quality of education. While Bihar’s performance in these areas is close to median average among Indian states, there is still a lot of scope for raising the quality of education. To cite a couple of stark statistics – one third of students in Class 6 (on average ages 11-12) cannot read a paragraph taken from a Class 2 textbook (for ages 6-8), and half of Class 5 (age 9-10) students cannot solve a simple division problem.

Schooling inputs

One way of assessing school performance is by looking at ‘schooling inputs’ – that is, what is being provided in the schools. We find that Bihar performs very poorly in the provision of basic schooling inputs, both in absolute terms and in relation to other states in India. Bihar has the highest student-teacher ratio as well as the student-classroom ratio among Indian states. In 2009-2010, which is the last year for which data are available, Bihar had 53 students to every one teacher, while the national median was 26. The student-classroom ratio is also very poor, with over 80 students per classroom in all years surveyed, far above the national median. We also find that the proportion of classrooms in good condition is 60%, which in addition to being below the national median is 20 percentage points below the best performing state in India. 

Among some other measures of schooling infrastructure, Bihar has made some progress in recent years in the provision of drinking water, and is now ranked above the median in India on this measure. However, the fact that roughly 10% of the primary schools lack access to drinking water facilities is clearly unacceptable. Other studies have found availability of a separate girls' toilet to be an important determinant both of female schooling and teacher attendance (see for instance Glewwe et al. 2011). This is particularly important in Bihar, which despite focusing on hiring female teachers for primary school, has only 20% of schools with separate toilets for girls – a very low figure in both relative and absolute terms. 

Unsurprisingly, we find several of these schooling inputs to be key to providing a good education. Disease transmission within and across schools adversely affects both the amount of schooling received and its quality. While the Bihar government has taken some steps in this direction by implementing a massive deworming programme in 2011 with a follow-up planned later this year, we argue that the policy imperative should be on providing access to drinking water and separate girls' toilets in school. 

Teacher absenteeism and perceptions of schooling

In addition to the infrastructural challenges identified above, Bihar needs to consider other important determinants of a good education. Previous studies, such as Chaudhury et al. (2006), highlight the problem of teacher absenteeism in several developing countries, including India. This body of research highlights a strong connection between poor school infrastructure, such as lack of drinking water, and teacher absenteeism, but also suggests that improved monitoring by authorities can improve teacher attendance. Indeed, data from a field experiment in Kenya suggest that scholarship incentives, where good grades were rewarded with grants and payment of school fees, helped to motivate both students and parents as well as reduce absenteeism (Kremer et al. 2009).  

Focusing on the teachers themselves, most studies on the link between performance-related pay and educational outcomes find the effects to be positive (see for example Muralidharan and Sundararaman 2011). An essential prerequisite to the implementation of any kind of incentive pay scheme, however, is to set up a data system for monitoring the performance of schools and teachers. Such a data system is essential in linking student performance to teacher effectiveness. Developing such a data system will have the additional benefit of allowing the administrators to monitor the performance of schools and take remedial action in poorly performing schools. Put simply, if Bihar is to implement such a policy of incentivising teachers and measuring school performance, it needs to have the data system in place first.

But the problem is not just teachers. There is a problem with parents and children demanding enough education. Our survey of existing research suggests that many parents and children perceive the returns to schooling as much less than the returns from starting work earlier in life. The result is people choosing to ‘under-educate’ themselves in many developing countries (otherwise known as ‘underinvestment’ in education). Experimental studies suggest that public campaigns aimed at informing parents and children of the benefits of education are extremely cost effective at increasing school enrolment. Given the current lack of public information in Bihar, we strongly recommend the government launches such a campaign. In Bihar in particular, it would be a good idea to emphasise the development of English language skills, given their high returns in the job market (Azam et al. 2011).

The road ahead

Recent policy initiatives and improvements in primary school enrolment show that Bihar is making progress in improving its education. Recent policies have focused on lowering the cost of schooling through subsidising or providing textbooks, uniforms, bicycles and cash transfers for attendance. While these have reduced the costs of schooling in Bihar, much remains to be done to boost schooling infrastructure and improve conditions for both students and teachers.

We re-emphasise that policymakers must universally provide drinking water facilities, and separate toilets for girls in schools. They must also improve the student-teacher ratio and ensure that classrooms are in good condition. Finally, given the high cost effectiveness of information campaigns regarding the returns to education, the government of Bihar should seriously look into this policy option. More generally, understanding the determinants of household’s decision to ‘invest’ in education should be an important component of academic research and policy in the area of education, which has previously tended to focus more on improving the quantity and quality of educational inputs.

Violence against Bihari domiciles around the world

India

Maharashtra

North Indian students, including students from Bihar, preparing for the railway entrance exam were attacked by Raj Thackeray's MNS supporters in Mumbai on 20 October 2008. One student from Bihar was killed during the attacks. Four persons were killed and another seriously injured in the violence that broke out in a village near Kalyan following the arrest of MNS chief Raj Thackeray. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar demanded action against the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists and full security to students. Nitish Kumar requested Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh intervention. Kumar directed the additional director general of police to contact senior police officials in Maharashtra and compile a report on Sunday's incident and asked the home commissioner to hold talks with the Maharashtra home secretary to seek protection for people from Bihar.In 2003, the Shiv Sena alleged that of the 500 Maharashtrian candidates, only ten of them successful in the Railways exams. 90 per cent of the successful candidates were alleged to be from Bihar. Activists from the Shiv Sena ransacked a railway recruitment office in protest against non-Marathi's being among the 650,000 candidates set to compete for 2,200 railway jobs in the state. Eventually, after attacks on Biharis heading towards Mumbai for exams, the central government delayed the exams.

North East states

Biharis have sought work in many states that form part of North East India. There were significant communities in Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur. Biharis who come to work as labourers are frequently and especially targeted in Assam by ULFA militants. There is a fear amongst the local population that Bihari migrants will dominate and annihilate the regional culture and the language. As with all migrations in history, this has created tensions with the local population, which has resulted in large scale violence. In 2000 and 2003, anti-Bihari violence led to the deaths of up to 200 people,and created 10,000 internal refugees Similar violent incidents have also taken place recently inManipur and Assam According to K P S Gill waves of xenophobic violence have swept across Assam repeatedly since 1979, targeting Bangladeshis, Bengalis, Biharis and Marwaris.

Karnataka

In July 2009, activists of the Kannada Protection Force (KPF) in Karnataka stormed into exam centres and disrupted railway recruitment examinations in protest against the appearance of north Indian candidates, especially from Bihar, in large numbers.

Rajasthan

The government in Rajasthan assured full protection to students from Bihar, after ragging incidents of Bihari students in a private engineering college in Udaipur surfaced. Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan flayed the attacks on Bihari students in Rajasthan saying that the students were subjected to insult, torture and assaulted with sticks when they protested. Former chief minister Rabri Devi called upon the chief minister to take necessary action and assure the safety of the students. According to reports, several Bihari students were thrashed during the ragging.

Pakistan

Sindh

Biharis in Pakistan have suffered from violence from Sindhis, particularly in the city of Karachi in the riots of 1994-1996. As a result of the violence against them Biharis in Pakistan have organized the Bihari Qaumi Movement to protect their rights.

Punjab

According to The National the ethnic Punjabis occupied most of the shelters that were allocated to the Biharis.

According to Zeeshan Haider, the Biharis in Pakistan are "now lost people who belong nowhere". A report in Rediff.com states that the situations in Pakistan have prompted a Bihari to migrate to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh

Prior to the birth of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, East Pakistani Biharis sided with the military regime of President Gen. Yahya Khan. Due to their loyalty towardsRawalpindi as well as their collaboration with the Pakistan Army in the atrocities committed against the Bengalis during the Bangladesh Liberation War, many suffered from violence and discrimination from Bengalis in the new republic. Today, the term Bihari is used in Bangladesh to refer to a larger group of stateless people left in Bangladesh, thestranded Pakistanis, many of whom are Biharis.

Mission - Crackdown Corruption

Nitish Kumar cleans up Bihar

Crime and corruption in Bihar were like twin brothers enjoying their familiar faces and force to lubricate the government machinery for their own growth and development. Backward Bihar had become synonymous with these two frightening features and had almost fallen from the map of the country but that appears to be history now.
When Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister of the state five years ago in November 2005 he promised to tame crime by establishing ‘rule of law with justice’ and he delivered in the first term of his regime so much so that people of the state brought him back to the saddle with a massive mandate for a second tenure. This time he declared that a ‘crackdown on corruption’ will be launched which he had promised during his poll campaign.
While unleashing several measures to wage war on corruption, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, “Today corruption has become a major issue like the 1974 and 1989 movements led by Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan and VP Singh. The public is rising against this malady.” He also asserted that he would go full-throttle against corruption as he had gone after ‘crime and criminals’ in the first term of his regime.
Apparently bubbling with the unprecedented mandate, Nitish Kumar’s sharp political cells and sense knew that hitting hard on corruption would have a direct positive impact on the common people of the state and would also uplift his political persona in the country. He remained tightly glued to his focus and has been hammering on corruption in several ways.
He pulled the first trigger and announced that all the ministers of his cabinet would declare their assets by December 31 and not very surprisingly, he was the first among them to make his assets public on the government website. He also declared his son’s assets along with his details. Later, all his cabinet colleagues followed suit and posted their asset declaration on the government website. This happened for the first time in the state and Nitish Kumar said it was necessary for being transparent in the eyes of the people.
Then came the turn of babus and bureaucrats of the state and Nitish Kumar knew that it would be a difficult task but he issued the diktat that bureaucrats except grade IV would have to follow suit and declare their assets, properties of their kin and sources of income. First, the deadline was given as January 31 which later was extended for a month to the end of February. It was made mandatory and warnings were issued that salaries of those who fail to abide by the government directive would be withheld.
Two of the young IAS officers who were district magistrates of Siwan and Gopalganj, Kuldeep Narayan and Balamurugan D were the first to set a precedent and come out with all their assets details above Rs 10,000 on the district websites. The rest, last heard, are busy these days making plus and minuses to meet the deadline. However, many to whom Eastern Panorama talked to felt aggrieved with the government directive while many expressed no problem at all.
Next was Nitish Kumar’s almost unilateral declaration to abolish the decade old provisions of Rs 1 crore Local Area Development Fund (LAD Fund) of all the 318 –243 of assembly and 75 of council legislators of the state. “It has been inviting a bad name for legislators in the name of bribe and corruption,” said Nitish Kumar while taking this bold move. Expectedly, no one protested openly except a few like the party Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha who of late has had a fall out with Nitish Kumar.
Then came the Right to Service Act in the state in which accountability will be fixed on the officials of the state government to do the public work within a specific timeframe failing which the official concerned would be penalized.  The Act will be introduced in the budget session of the legislature and will be implemented thereafter in full spirit and letter.
“The proposed Act, like the RTI act will be an important tool in the hands of the people of the state,” said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Earlier, after consulting experts, the Nitish Kumar government had prepared a draft bill of the Prevention of Corruption Act and got it passed by the Bihar Assembly in February 2009 but this was kept languishing in the Central Home and Law ministries for a year. However, after several reminders and follow-ups, the Bihar Special Courts Act’ 2009 eventually became a law passed by the President in March 2010.
The Act, significantly, allowed the state government to seize property of the corrupt officials even during the trial of the case. “It will be a great deterrent and prevent corrupting from governance as the government is now empowered to confiscate properties of public servants found guilty of amassing wealth disproportionate to their known source of income,” said an official of the Special Vigilance Unit.
Now, the government has decided to open government schools in the seized properties of the corrupt officials. All eyes are now on the first babu to be nailed under this Act. The process, however, has been initiated against an alleged corrupt motor vehicle inspector of Aurangabad district, Raghuvansh Kunwar whose three story house located in the Kankerbagh area of the state capital might be confiscated soon and a government school be opened there.
“I’ve lived in this house for 20 years with my wife, children and three brothers and suddenly I was being told to hand over my house,” stated a bewildered Kunwar who went to Patna High Court where the case is kept pending. For the record, a total of 18 such cases valued at Rs 21 crore, including one of a former state Police Chief Narayan Mishra and 87 cases for ‘possible confiscation of assets’ are pending with the state vigilance unit.
Apart from all this, Nitish Kumar, of late, has come out with another novel idea to make Bihar a corruption free state. At an interaction session with NDA workers held recently at his official residence, he declared that the ruling alliance would identify 100 dedicated party workers; at least two for each of the 38 districts; to train on ways of  spying on corrupt officials, collecting pertinent evidence and apprising the government.
“Complaints against corrupt officials should be supported by concrete proof so that the perpetrators are ensured jail sentences,” exhorted Nitish Kumar to NDA workers and leaders.
According to a report confirmed by a bank official, ever since Nitish Kumar has launched an all-out crackdown on corruption, over Rs 100 crore has been withdrawn from different banks of the state capital, Patna. “It might be panic driven withdrawals,” said the bank official.
The word has gone out and is loud that Nitish Kumar has waged a full frontal war against corruption in the state stating “He will not rest until corruption is rooted out from the state”. Now, only time will tell how far Nitish Kumar will go in his ‘mission to crackdown on corruption’ or whether it will turn out to be a mere optical illusion. Meanwhile, the people of Bihar are watching the sequence with their fingers crossed and legs limbered.

Communal riots forgotten Bhagalpur- 1989 #Justice

Twenty six years ago Bhagalpur district witnessed one of the worst communal riots in post-independent India. The victims - mainlyMuslims - are still struggling, socially and economically. This paper presents the main findings of the official commission of inquiry set up to investigate the killing and interweaves the context of a research study of the Centre for Equity Studies documenting the experiences of victims / survivors in Bhagalpur on justice and reparation, It makes policy recommendations on the framework for reparations to victims.

Warisha Farasat (faramusa@hotmail.com) is with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi.

Two months before the riots, between 12 and 22 August 1989, on the occasion of Muharram and Bisheri Puja, communal passions were already running high in Bhagalpur, who had a history of communal clashes. However, the immediate trigger for the riots in Bhagalpur Ramshila program was the fifth day of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). As part of a broader nationally-Ram Janmabhoomicampaign, Ramshila - bricks for the proposed large Ram Mandir (temple) at Ayodhya - were to be transported in five processions through the rural areas of Bhagalpur and converge in 24 the city. The growing influence of right-wing forces to polarize society on communal lines had vitiated the atmosphere and provocative actions during processions things worse.

The outbreak of communal violence on 24 October 1989 in Bhagalpur was preceded by a series of disseminated by criminal elements that about 200 Hindu students living in cottages near the university area had been killed by Muslims rumors. This was followed by another rumor that 31 Hindu boys had been killed and thrown into a well in the Sanskrit College bodies. It turned out that both rumors were unfounded, but fanned Minorities (Commission, 1990: 242) communal violence.

A three-member Commission of Inquiry, which was established by the stategovernment Bihar Bhagalpur to investigate the pogrom concluded that the riots were caused by the procession Ramshila (Sinha and Hasan 1995: 14). He also named several police officers, including the then Superintendent of Police, KS Dwivedifor unable to stop the violence and recommended further research on the role of official machinery during the riots.

Political player 

Bhagalpur riots took place when Congress was in power in Bihar and Jagannath Mishra was the chief minister. Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, during his visit to the areas affected by the unrest ordered Dwivedi be moved immediately because of his controversial role in the unrest and prejudice against Muslims. However, transfer orders triggered protests VHP and other Hindu right-wing forces, forcing Gandhi to rescind his orders (Chopra and Jha 2012). Even today, the survivors note that no transfer order Dwivedi been revoked at the time, many lives would have been saved, as many of the worst atrocities took place after this. Indeed, the subsequent commission of inquiry set up to investigate the riots accused Dwivedi and noted in his report:

We want to keep Dwivedi, the then superintendent of police, Bhagalpur, fully responsible for what happened before October 24, 1989, 24 himself and [after] the 24th. Their communal bias was fully demonstrated not only by way of arresting Muslims and not extend adequate support to protect (Sinha and Hasan 1995: 114).

The Congress government at the time did little to stop any disturbances or provide relief and rehabilitation to the victims and their families. Even Lalu Prasad Yadav, who won the 1990 elections on a secular platform in Bihar, made insufficient efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the riots in Bhagalpur. In fact, many survivors believe that Yadav avoid any action because many of the demonstrators who led mobs against Muslims belonging to his caste.

Similarly, even the efforts of the current owner, Nitish Kumar, who heads a coalition of Janata Dal (United) (JD (U)) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, have been gradually, and of the major issues of justice, accountability of police officers, and repairs remain unresolved. The wounds of mass violence remained open and festering; even now they tell the victims of the slaughter brutality and lack of justice thereafter in great detail.

Awaiting Justice

Although 23 years have passed, victims of communal carnage are still struggling, socially and economically. In only a handful of cases, such as Chanderi and Logain massacres, the guilty have been punished. In the village of Chanderi, 65 Muslims were hacked with machetes and their bodies thrown into a pond. Mallika Begum - the only surviving witness - bravely resisted all threats and temptations offered by the accused to secure the conviction of 16 people who participated in the slaughter. In the village of Logain, 118 people were killed. To hide the truth, the authors buried the bodies in the fields and later planted cauliflower on this mass grave.

Even in the few cases where the rioters were condemned as Kameshwar Yadav in the infamous case Parbatti, witnesses live under fear of reprisals. While Kameshwar Yadav was involved in many murders and incidents leading the crowd during the riots, which eventually was convicted in 2007 for the murder of Mohammad Munna, son of Bibi Waleema, who was a resident of Parbatti area in the city of Bhagalpur ( Yadav 2007). Any protection or support to these witnesses who testified against the protesters was provided. A relative of Waleema Bibi, a street vendor, told us that he has stopped selling goods in their village and now plies his trade far as he fears for his life.1

The challenge more heartbreaking for the victims of the riots in Bhagalpur is their struggle against forgetting. The brutality of mass violence against Muslims has faded from public memory even when the victims await justice and rehabilitation. The stories of the death of around 1,000 Muslims - men, women and children hacked with machetes, killed entire families and dumped in ponds, or people confined to their homes and burned alive - are now remembered only by survivors or immediate family members of the victims who have been fighting a lonely battle.

People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), Delhi was perhaps one of the few civil society groups documenting the unrest in the details, in particular the role and complicity of police in riot (People's Rights Union democratic 1996). Besides PUDF efforts, there have been intermittent visits of individual activists to meet with survivors and relatives of victims. In general, there has been little documentation or support provided by human rights groups for survivors of the massacre.

Official records of Bhagalpur riots, along with other important cases of communal violence have been comparatively widely discussed and analyzed in a previous report by the Centre for Equity Studies (CES) titledAccountability for Mass Violence: Review Record (Chopra State and Jha 2012). This report provides a new perspective on the mechanics of communal violence in the four sites - Bhagalpur (Bihar), Gujarat, Nelli (Assam) and Delhi (the 1984 anti-Sikh riots) - and concludes that the State has failed to punish the authors or provide adequate compensation to victims and their families.

A broken city

This lack of repair has meant that even in 2012, Bhagalpur remains a deeply divided city. Today, the BJP national Muslim face, Shahnawaz Hussain, Bhagalpur represents in Parliament. His two consecutive Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket victories are being projected as a new harmony. However, the truth on the ground is contradictory. With little movement toward justice, rehabilitation or repair, the political administration has always been keen to avoid confronting the ghosts of the riots in 1989. The threat of communal violence appears to have fallen back, but in different ways occurrences 1989 loom large. The communal division runs on all social and business transactions. It has been widely reported that Indian traders buy provisions Hindu, while Muslims and Muslim businesses sponsoring companies.

In fact, a story about a recent experience of the research team reaffirmed CES this communal division. The home team comprises CES researchers and activists from different religious communities. Last year, when we were in the process of establishing an office in Bhagalpur, we identified an apartment. It was agreed between the ESC and the owner, and one month's rent is paid in advance. However, after just a few days, the owner, who also lived in one of the apartments of the building, created a huge fuss about a small problem and asked us to vacate the premises within two weeks. Having found another office space for rent and we finally move our furniture from the apartment, we face and asked why we had been asked to leave the apartment so suddenly and for no reason. His response was:

Musalman aur Hum ghar ko nahi caste dete hain; agar mujhe leg Hota Pehle ki bhi mein Musalman team hain, main ghar Kabhi nahi deti (not leave our homes to Muslims and castes and if I had known before that this team had individuals of the Muslim community as well, I would not agreed to rent my apartment in the first place).

While your response bother us, but also exposed the social realities of modern India: though secularism is enshrined in the Constitution long ago, in practice, it is present only at the margins. In fact, community and religious polarization pervades our social interactions.

Social scientist Ashutosh Varshney has argued that the state and police bias has little to do with the communal riots; civic engagement and fractured relationships between communities are primarily responsible for the communal riots (Varshney 2002). In the context of Bhagalpur, however, it seems that communal violence, in fact, led to the fractured civic relations. As it regards the disturbances, police and other state authorities failed to protect Muslims. The police complicity in the riots Bihar explained in the Commission's investigation report, which accused the local police at various levels. Not only the local police failed to control communal violence in several instances, they have participated in the selection of the Muslims.

The State of Bihar

The lack of justice and compensation for victims / survivors is exacerbated by the dismal state of affairs and impoverished Bihar. To understand how little has changed in the state that need to travel through rural Bihar in the peak of summer. The summer months are marked by power outages and acute oppressive heat, with several districts receiving electricity only once in two days. In the Human Development Report 2011 Index, Bihar ranked the lowest in the distribution of households with electricity for domestic use in 2008-09, a mere 30.5% (Institute of Applied Manpower Research 2011: 390).

In fact, in rural Bihar only 24.5% of households have electricity for domestic use, with rural Uttar Pradesh (UP) a close second to rural households 37.6% receiving power (ibid). Last summer, including urban municipalities of Bihar reeled under massive blackouts. Even the rich were left in the dark as there was no electricity to charge the backup power. Only 3% of public schools in Bihar have electricity and only 8.8% of children under six have received any service of a anganwadi center in the last year (ibid: 194). Bhagalpur a social worker complained, "Nitish has given more power to Patna so that everyone thinks that Bihar has changed But Bihar lives in their villages Nothing has changed there..."

From Bihar it is one of the most densely populated states in the country, much of village life spills on the roads. Young children running around, men and women carrying stacks of dry rice on the head, mud houses full of cowdung cakes, and farmers plow their fields make imaginary idyllic village life. But life is not easy. A local trader tells us that kerosene lamps are still the most reliable method of lighting their homes at night.

Bihar remaining one of the poorest states in India, the question of just reparations and accountability of communal violence is even more important, since many of the surviving victims affected by the riots in Bhagalpur / belong to desperately poor funds . The following sections of this paper presents the main findings of the official commission set up to investigate the killing. Then the context of CES research study documenting the experiences of victims / survivors in Bhagalpur in justice and reparation is woven. Given the failure of state institutions to respond to the demand of the victims / survivors of legal justice and reparation, where victims / survivors are? What about the crucial questions of accountability and redress cases of mass violence as Bhagalpur? In this sense, the essay will outline some preliminary findings of the research and make policy recommendations in the context of repairs compensation for survivors of Bhagalpur.

Inquiries

In 1990, the Government of Bihar was a dependent Commission of Inquiry of the Commission of Inquiry Act (1952) to examine the communal riots. The research sought to provide an explanation for the occurrence of communal violence, examine the people and institutions responsible, and to recommend measures to prevent recurrence of such disorders. A total of 126 witnesses were examined. According to the report, the unrest spread to 250 villages in which about 900 people died and nearly 50,000 people were affected (Sinha and Hasan 1995: 10).

Ultimately, two reports of independent commissions were compiled - one by the president, Justice Ram Nandan Prasad, the other being jointly released by the other two members of the commission, Justice Ram Chandra Prasad Sinha and Justice S Shamsul Hasan. Justice Prasad chose to present his report independently because of a disagreement with the results of the other members of the Commission.

In addition to the three-member Commission of Inquiry, the then president, MH S Burney, and members of the Minorities Commission of India also visited Patna and Bhagalpur on 22-24 January 1990 and prepared a report. In his own words, Minorities Commission explained that its mandate was to examine the measures taken for the rehabilitation of people affected by the riots rather than investigating the causes of the unrest, which had been entrusted to a commission of inquiry. The conclusions and recommendations of both committees have been prepared on woven together whenever appropriate in this trial.

During his election campaign in 2004, Nitish Kumar promised that if elected would ensure that justice and compensation provided to victims of the riots in Bhagalpur. When he took over as prime minister after winning the election, he made some efforts to revise the Bhagalpur riots. While this effort was a good first step, he could not go beyond tokenism and many victims still waiting for justice and reparation.

As part of his campaign promise, the Nitish Kumar government first prompted the formation of another commission of inquiry to reconsider the issues of justice, compensation and rehabilitation for victims / survivors riot. Consequently, pursuant to Section 3 (1) of the Law Commission of Inquiry (XL Act, 1952), the Governor of Bihar in February 2006 was another one-man commission of inquiry headed by Justice NN Singh as it was considered the previous three-member Commission of Inquiry did not deliberate on matters relating to the fixing of individual responsibility, and that adequate and sufficient rehabilitation, had not been provided to victims and their families.

Moreover, a large number of cases arising from the riots in Bhagalpur had also finished in the presentation of the final reports or acquittal. It was mandated by the Commission Singh NN research to investigate the conduct and performance of law enforcement agencies in cases arising from the riots in Bhagalpur, which ended with the presentation of a final report and the acceptance thereof by the tribunal in the absence of concerted, coordinated and appropriate by the tax agencies measures. Moreover, he asked to analyze the circumstances in which investigating officers submitted final reports, and lapses on his part that may have led to the closure of court cases. This committee was also asked to examine the issue of relief and rehabilitation for victims of the riots, including the question of distress sales. Finally, he asked to suggest corrective actions to prevent recurrence of communal riots measures.

It also states that the deputy inspector general of police, north region, Bhagalpur oversee the team, which report their progress to him every fortnight and would, in turn, report to the Commission on progress in the investigation every month. However, the fate of the Commission N Singh N Research is no different than that plagued the commissions established previously. The commission has received several extensions and even after six years of his training, a final report has not been presented to the government or made public. Recently, the mandate of the Commission NN Singh was extended once again, to February 28, 2013 (The Telegraph, 2012).

A second initiative (U) Government Nitish Kumar JD was to instruct the Deputy Inspector General of Police (judicial police) Girija Nandan Sharma to examine the records in cases related to the riots in Bhagalpur and examine whether some of these cases could be revived . After visiting the courts, the examination of records, and the study of cases closed, Sharma recommends new research of 29 cases, which included seven cases in the district of Banka and the rest in Bhagalpur district. Following the riots, as part of the administrative reorganization a separate Banka district was carved out of the old district Bhagalpur. Sharma recommends that cases were closed for lack of evidence or failure of the police to bring witnesses before the reopening of the court. Among them were several cases of murder, arson, riots and destruction of property.

Research Study CES

The official figure for the number of people killed in the riots in Bhagalpur was 1000, but the unofficial count exceeds 2000, double the official figure. Although the scope of the bloodshed and destruction was massive during the riots, it has completely vanished from public memory. In fact, the strategy of successive governments in Patna seemed continually postpone any action, and over time became the unrest in a butcher forgotten. In fact, a survivor once said during a trip there, "Hota airport Agar Jahan pe to Shayad NGOs zyada log aur dekhne bhi hame AATE" (If there was an airport in Bhagalpur, then maybe more NGOs and individuals have come to see us / our condition as well). Ironically, the anatomy of the riots in Bhagalpur is quite similar to the 2002 Gujarat pogrom - both were large-scale rural revolts. We believe that if there was rapid and complete legal justice Bhagalpur communal violence, would perhaps have been more difficult to carry out the Gujarat pogrom.

Given that very little has been written on the status of victims of communal violence Bhagalpur, the ETUC launched a detailed investigation with victims / survivors to document their experiences of justice study, rehabilitation and repair communal riots. The research study is qualitative and depends mainly on the narratives and experiences of the families of the victims. In traditional research methodologies, there is a clear distinction between "research subjects" and researchers, in which the former are supposed to provide information that the investigator is supposed to record and analyze. The research methodology for the CES survey breaks this traditional paradigm, with the research being conducted with victims / survivors and members of the local community. By using this methodology, there is no doubt that learning nuanced issues of communalism, repairs and justice emerge.

Detailed accounts of victims / survivors of areas affected by the unrest around Bhagalpur are being collected by a team of local researchers. In these accounts, they are documenting their experiences on three main aspects of justice, compensation and rehabilitation. As we have begun a preliminary analysis of the interviews of the victims, and juxtaposed with the official policy, the challenges of government policy and its implementation in relation to the victims of the riots are evident. While a clearer and a more detailed set of results shown in the final report, the present essay identifies and provides some preliminary and provisional conclusions of the investigation. One caveat is that some of these findings may be further clarified or modified later based on a final analysis of the interviews as data collection is still ongoing. However, these interim results are being put into the public domain in order to start a debate on the riots in Bhagalpur almost forgotten, along with the broader issue of reparations and accountability of communal riots in general.

The following sections explore the two urgent issues of compensation and justice in the context of some of the preliminary findings of the research documenting the experiences of victims / survivors.

Question of compensation

Working closely with the victims and their families in Bhagalpur in the past year, we have been faced with challenges that have beset the remuneration policy of the government to the victims of the riots in Bhagalpur. Even after 22 years, many families of the victims have not received any compensation. The state government announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh for those whose relatives were killed. Later, in 2006, the amount of compensation has been enhanced to an additional Rs 3.5 lakh to the kin of the deceased. However, there were several discrepancies in both the remuneration policy and the implementation of the policy by which many families have been left out. In several cases, the ESC has facilitated the process of the survivors prepare their claims for compensation to the authorities responsible district disburse compensation.

(A) The need for a comprehensive reparations: With the development of a rights-based approach, the term compensation begins to be replaced by repair, symbolizing a more comprehensive, just and dignified way to deal damage as a result of human rights violations. Financial or monetary compensation is only one component of a comprehensive reparations policy. Initiatives repairs can be designed in many ways. They may include a number of measures such as financial compensation, social services such as health and education, and symbolic measures such as a formal apology or public commemorations. Within this scheme, the repairs are seen more as a matter of right of victims rather than charity from the government. The Basic Principles of the United Nations and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparations provides for compensation, restitution, rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition. Under these principles, effective remedy includes: (a) the effective and equal access to justice; (B) adequate, effective and prompt reparation for harm suffered; and (c) access to relevant information concerning violations and reparation mechanisms.2

In India, the compensation law has evolved over the murders of imprisonment, torture and communal violence. With the decisions in DK Basu vsState West Bengal (AIR 1997 SC 610) and Behera Nilabati vs State of Orissa (1993 Crl LJ 2899), the right to compensation for violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India or the right to life he has been crystallized. In cases of communal violence, the government has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay compensation.

(B) interim recommendations on the compensation policy: We put the information received by the families of the victims in the legal and political framework and tried to identify the challenges in the current compensation policy to make recommendations based on policies. Therefore, the following ideas are informed by both best practices and applications received from victims of the riots.

First of all, by the riots in Bhagalpur, there is no provision for any compensation for loss of property other than a home. Therefore, a more comprehensive compensation package should be developed to provide at least some form of monetary compensation to victims whose shops were looted and burned, livestock were destroyed or looted, and household items were destroyed or looted, and as those who lost their fertility agricultural land and were forced to flee their villages.3

The loss of property was not adequately assessed or quantified, government policy for the repair of destroyed houses was clearly insufficient, and the amounts paid to the families of the victims were scarce. The amounts that have been paid for the loss of a house should be improved at least 10 times what victims originally received, or an estimate of the actual market value of the houses should be made to people who have already received compensation . At the same time, it must be determined whether some families have been left outside the scope of compensation for loss of property and their names should be included in the new list.

Since no action to relocate or rehabilitate people who were forced to flee their villages and homes due to communal violence, a clear policy needs to be developed to help families who have not returned to their villages were taken, but still you may want to return to his native place, they left behind during the riots.

The current remuneration policy also restricts incidents riots compensation for the death of a time frame that is unfair and unrealistic. The time frame for compensation has been set for incidents of unrest or violence that occurred between October 24 1989 and November 30, 1989, and from 20 to 21 March 1990.4 It is well known that the communal atmosphere pronounced continued long later and no incidents were minor for most of the year during which many people were missing (and presumed dead) or were found dead.

The poverty,income and urbanization of Bihar

The state has a per capita income of $ 360 per year, compared with the average of $ 1,265 in India and 30.6% of the state population lives below the poverty line against the average Indian 22 15%.

But Bihar GSDP grew 18% between 2006 and 2007, which is higher than in the last 10 years.Hajipur was near Patna, a large industrial city in the state in the capital remains bound by the Ganges bridge good transportation infrastructure. The level of urbanization (10.5%) is below the national average (27.78% of). Urban poverty in Bihar (32.91%) is higher than the national average of 23.62%. Even with the water supply per capita as a proxy, Bihar (61 liters per day) is lower than the national average (142 liters per day)