Bengali Report - Bengalee Association Bihar

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The most substantive welfare programme of the state government for helping the economically disadvantaged population is the Public Distribution System (PDS) for foodgrains and a few other essential items of consumption. Although it is a universal programme, the real beneficiaries are those who hold a ration card which is either red (BPL household), or white (annapurna programme) or yellow (antodaya programme). The households living above poverty line (APL) are given a blue card. The distribution of ration cards of various types by the administration is beset with a number of problems in Bihar, and the situation is no different for Bengali households. In spite of wide prevalence of poverty, the proportion of Bengali households holding a red, yellow or white card is less than 40 percent (Table 11). Since the poverty level among the Bengali population is relatively higher in West Champaran and East Champaran, one also finds relatively more red/white/yellow cards in those districts. Yet another problem for the Bengali households vis-à-vis public distribution system is that 30.4 percent of them do not have any ration card. It is quite possible that some of these excluded households probably did not care to 19
obtain a ration card, as they are high income (above poverty line or APL) households, but it is almost certain that a majority of these excluded households could not obtain a ration card of proper kind due to administrative lapses. Leaving aside Bhagalpur where BPL households are very limited, the above administrative lapse was more prominent in West Champaran and East Champaran, the two districts where poverty levels are relatively higher. Table 11 : Percentage of Bengali Households by Type of Their Ration Cards Districts APL Card (Blue) BPL Card (Red) Percentage of Households with Annapurna Card (White) 20 Antodaya Card (Yellow) No Card Total Purnea 56.8 27.8 0.3 2.5 12.6 100.0 Katihar 40.8 25.4 0.6 4.1 29.1 100.0 West Champaran 23.6 34.7 0.1 5.9 35.7 100.0 East Champaran 12.8 47.3 0.1 5.1 34.8 100.0 Bhagalpur 46.2 0.6 0.0 0.1 52.9 100.0 All Districts 31.8 33.0 0.2 4.7 30.4 100.0 The state government runs a number of other welfare programmes for the poor households, besides the public distribution system for foodgrains. Four of these additional welfare programmes are — Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), Subsidy for Toilet, Old Age Pension, and Widow Pension. Unfortunately, the reach of all these welfare programmes among the Bengali households is very limited, as revealed by the figures in Table 12. Only under the IAY programme, a small proportion of Bengali households (6.4 percent) has been benefited; for the remaining three welfare programmes, their reach among the Bengali population is abysmally low. And this phenomenon of exclusion is observed in all the districts.
Page 2 and 3: CONTENTS ii Page No. List of Tables
Page 4 and 5: SECTION I INTRODUCTION The history
Page 6 and 7: programmes, it is now often necessa
Page 8 and 9: SECTION II SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITION
Page 10 and 11: Districts Table 2 : Demographic Pro
Page 12 and 13: health status of the Bengali popula
Page 14 and 15: level of education of any of its me
Page 16 and 17: the adult population, and occupatio
Page 18 and 19: Bengalis was found to be the highes
Page 20 and 21: than 3 percent) and so is their ten
Page 24 and 25: Table 12 : Percentage of Bengali Ho
Page 26 and 27: As regards type of roof material, a
Page 28 and 29: most areas of Bihar, including some
Page 30 and 31: SECTION III BENGALI REFUGEES FROM E
Page 32 and 33: continued for some years after 1960
Page 34 and 35: overall sample, it is observed that
Page 36 and 37: Finally, the present survey had tri
Page 38 and 39: This official report, at one hand,
Page 40 and 41: same, viz., creation of an informat
Page 42: y the local officials. More than 90

Bengali Report - Bengalee Association Bihar

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