The underdevelopment of social sectors in Bihar has been widely acknowledged since the 1980s. Almost all basic statistics, including Census reports, National Sample Survey reports, and National Family Heath Surveys, have noted the low levels of social indicators such as literacy and enrolment in absolute terms as well as in terms of the relative position of Bihar among the States of India. It is also well known that there are serious disparities across rural and urban locations, socio-economic classes, castes, and gender. Although some positive changes have been observed since the mid-2010s, it is a common understanding that the underdevelopment of social sectors has been a serious constraint on, and consequence of, the overall economic development and human rights situation of the State.

The PARI survey, conducted in two villages of North Bihar, Katkuian and Nayanagar, in 2012 also shows very low levels of literacy and schooling, especially among women and oppressed castes. In this sense, the survey adds another piece of concrete evidence to the general understanding of the acute underdevelopment of social sectors. The survey also reveals the variation of “underdevelopment” according to the location and socio-economic composition of the two villages. We find some signs of positive change over the last few decades, such as an improvement in enrollment ratio at the elementary school level. A limitation of this Note is that the PARI survey was primarily designed to analyze agrarian relations, not social change.

Literacy and Years of Schooling

Literacy

The literacy rates of the population aged 7 and above in the two villages, according to sex, religion and social group, are shown in Table 1. The overall literacy rates were 30 per cent for females, 52 per cent for males and 41 per cent for persons in Katkuian and 46 per cent for females, 64 per cent for males and 56 per cent for persons in Nayanagar. Literacy rates of Katkuian were below the State average for rural areas at the Census of 2011 (females: 44 and males: 69) and those of Nayanagar were slightly above them.

However, averages do not show the real situation. Though disparities across religious groups are not very large (Nayanagar had no Muslim population), disparities across castes groups are clear. For example, while the proportion of literate persons among Scheduled Caste males was 31 per cent in Katkuian and 36 per cent in Nayanagar, the corresponding figures for general or other caste males were 65 per cent in Katkuian and 80 per cent in Nayanagar. Disparity by caste is wider among females.

While the overall literacy rate is slightly better in Nayanagar, it does not imply that those at the bottom of the village hierarchy had better chances of schooling in Nayanagar. In fact, disparities across caste and socio-economic class are larger in Nayanagar than in Katkuian (Tables 2 and 3). In Nayanagar, a substantial number of persons from Bhumihar land-owning classes have enjoyed higher education for several decades. Women in this group had literacy rates of 80 to 100 per cent.

Years of Schooling

Table 4 shows the median years of schooling of persons aged 16 and above in the two villages. The median years were a little higher in Nayanagar than Katkuian, but the level was extremely low in both villages. The median years of schooling for females in both villages was zero. In other words, more than one half of the female population aged 16 and above did not have one year’s experience of schooling.

Tables 5 and 6 show the median years of schooling by socio-economic class. In Nayanagar, we find a small cluster of households among the big landlord and upper tier of cultivators that have reached a level of schooling beyond Class 12. It is noticeable that the female members of these classes have also achieved almost the same level of education as the men. On the other hand, manual workers and artisans of both villages have extremely limited experience of schooling. Although the average levels of educational achievement are equally low in the two villages, the main problem of Katkuian is the absolute underdevelopment of schooling while that of Nayanagar is disparity.

The difference across the two villages is further substantiated by data on years of schooling by age-group (Tables 7 and 8). We can assume that unlike men, most of the women in the age group 20 years and more were born elsewhere and moved into the villages after marriage. The data on women therefore does not reflect the penetration of schooling in the two villages. However, it is likely that the average educational levels among women who married in to the village was similar to those of women marrying out from the two villages.

As Table 7 shows, men above the age of 60 in landlord households of Nayanagar, that is, those who were born in the 1960s or earlier, had completed 15 years of education, that is, had access to higher education. Age group analysis shows a time lag in access to higher education as between big landlords and upper sections of cultivators. For example, only half of those in the age group 20-29 years (those who were born in the 1980s) reached post-school education (11 years and more) among upper sections of cultivators. In the case of females, the contrast is much clearer: all females in the age group 20-29 years in the class of Big landlords enjoyed higher education, while the ratio was less than 20 per cent among better off Cultivators.

In Katkuian, the penetration of schooling lagged a few decades behind Nayanagar, and even among those in the age group 20-29 years (that is, those who were born in the 1980s), only 40 per cent of males among landlords and capitalist farmers had attained higher education (13 years+); the proportion was 9 per cent among the upper section of peasants. In the case of women, the contrast between the two villages is more sharp.

It should also be noted that the existence of a small cluster of highly educated persons in the village has not made any impact on the working classes in Nayanagar. Increasing demand for higher education of a particular section of the village population has not improved the basic educational infrastructure, nor radically transformed educational achievements, of the poorer sections of the village, as if these were two separate worlds.

Activity Status and Schooling Among Children

Activity Status

While the overall situation is alarmingly underdeveloped, we see the gradual spread of school education in both villages, and most children aged 6-14 years were going to school in the survey year.

Most of the younger generation, both boys and girls, even in the lowest economic groups whose parents have had no schooling, now receive some years of schooling. They are the first generation of learners in their households. At the same time, school is not the primary activity for all children; about 10 per cent of children in the ages 6-9 years were deprived of schooling. The ratio was 13 per cent in Katkuian and 18 per cent in Nayanagar in the age group 10-14 years (Tables 9 and 10). Special efforts are needed to encourage schooling in this age group.

Even for children whose primary activity status was “student,” schooling may be at risk. The proportion of students reporting some secondary and other activity rises with age, to more than 12 per cent in Nayanagar and 23 per cent in Katkuian among 10-14-year olds. Among secondary and other activities, “housework” (mainly for girls) and “animal husbandry” were reported frequently.

Age-Grade Gap

In order to understand the degree of penetration and acceptance of universal schooling in the two villages, we tried to calculate a simple index, the age-grade gap, using the data on age and years of schooling, with the assumption that “years of schooling” roughly indicates the grade (standard/class) in which a child is studying. The idea behind this index is that parents, the community, and the school system normally send children to school at a fixed age if the notion of universal education is well established in a society. It is possible that parents and those responsible for children intentionally choose to delay their schooling to gain better options, for example, by home education. While there is the possibility of such “alternative education,” in the context of the two villages, it is more likely that a delay in sending children to school is on account of social conditions and/or economic necessity than an active choice for alternative education.

The age of enrollment of primary school in Bihar is regulated as five years: it is expected that children of age 5 and 6 are studying in Grade 1.

In this (“normal”) case, the gap (age 5-her grade) should be either -1, or 0.

If the difference is less than -1 (-2 and less) or above 1, we term it as “other than normal” gap.

In this paper, we have added one year as an allowance to the “normal” range, and created four categories of the age-grade gap:

1. -1 year≦Gap ≦1 year (“normal”)
2. Gap ≦ -2 years,
3. 2 years ≦ Gap ≦3 years,
4. 4 years ≦ Gap

Figures 1 and 2 show the age-grade gap of children aged 5 to 9 years, that is, in the first five years of their schooling. In both villages, more than one-third of children of this age group are studying at “other than normal” grades. Interestingly, boys’ schooling seems more irregular than that of girls.

There may be multiple interpretations of the observed gap. Reporting error (respondents do not answer either correct age or grade, or both) is one of the most likely reasons. Enrolment at an age younger or older than 5 and repeating the same grade are also not uncommon. There is no single reason for the gap, but the gap shows that the notion of universal schooling fixed with age has not yet completely taken hold in the villages, and there is a certain degree of irregularity in the process of schooling. For the differences between boys and girls, one possible explanation is that girls are trained and positioned to be more “obedient” in what they have to do, and boys have more obligations or opportunities to work or to play. In this context, the education of boys is more likely to be delayed or be irregular than that of girls.

Schools: Educational Infrastructure

Needless to say, the most important kind of educational infrastructure at the village level is the school itself. There is one government middle school (Grade 1-8) in Katkuian, one government primary school (Grade 1-5) in Jhankaul (a village 2 km from Katkuian), and one government high school (9-12) in Bagaha (a town 12 km from Katkuian). Nayanagar has two government primary schools, one government middle school, and one government high school. There is a government primary school and middle school in Mohiuddinpur (2 km far from Nayanagar). Katkuian does not have any private schools. There is one private school (Grade 1-12) in Nayanagar. Nayanagar, a large and relatively well-connected village, thus enjoys more school facilities than Katkuian.

The situation is different when we examine the data on schools reported in the PARI survey. While there are many cases of names and locations of schools not being reported in the survey, we nevertheless found that more than 50 schools and educational institutions, from primary schools to post-graduate institutes, were named in Katkuian, and more than 60 named in Nayanagar.

One reason for this is that a good number of children study at the schools located in adjacent villages. This is very visible in Katkuian, a small village with only government primary schools. It is not rare for the children to go to schools located in near-by villages even at the primary level. Those studying beyond 10th grade enrol at high schools or colleges located in near-by local towns. The location and size of a village is important in terms of offering basic educational opportunity, especially beyond middle school.

We also found cases in which the schools that children attended were in distant locations, even outside Bihar. Tables 11 and 12 show the wide range of schools experienced by children of the two villages. The ratio of private schools to public schools, and of distant schools to “within district” schools is a little higher in Nayanagar than in Katkuian. The ratios also increase with the level of education.

In our data it is not always possible to distinguish cases of migration for the purpose of education from ones where the young accompany a migrant member of the household; however, most children studying at distant places live with one or more family members. The names and locations of schools reveal the diverse schooling experiences of migrants’ children, from prestigious public schools located in big cities to government schools in semi-rural towns. While we do not know what proportion of these children will come back to the villages, rather than becoming urban settlers, it is safe to say that a substantial number of children have out-of-village schooling experiences.

Education and Mobility

In the first section, we discussed literacy and schooling from the viewpoints of socio-economic class, caste, and religion. The analysis was based on the notion that the position of a household in a hierarchical structure, particularly those of class and caste, determines a household member’s schooling and educational attainment. It is very true that one’s position in the structure determines his or her access to education. In this sense, education is highly class-reproductive by nature, and reinforces existing structures rather than weakening them. At the same time, education is an asset of individuals and households. It is possible to gain more mobility with education through better employment opportunities.

In order to see the link between schooling and occupation, we tabulated data on occupational categories by years of schooling. For males, we consider two age groups (40 years old and above, 20 to 39 years old) and migrants and non-migrants (Appendix Tables 1 to 6).

Non-Migrant Males

Most non-migrant males of age 40+ years with less than five years of schooling in Katkuian were agricultural and other manual workers, artisans, and peasants. The diversity of occupations was greater in Nayanagar than in Katkuian. The proportion of peasants is higher among males with more years of schooling, and a small cluster of white-collar jobs appears in Nayanagar for those with 9-10 years of schooling. It appears that relatively highly educated non-migrant males in Nayanagar remained in the agriculture sector.

Among the younger generation (non-migrant males aged 20-39), the diversity of occupations is more visible, especially in Nayanagar where a higher proportion of those with 9-10 years or more were “in white collar jobs” or “business/shop owner’s” or “students” than person with fewer years of schooling. Among those with 0-5 and 6-8 years of schooling, the most frequent occupation is manual labour. In this educational category, there appears to be a generational difference: senior members worked at agriculture and associated work whereas the younger generation of the same household worked as manual labour outside agriculture.

Migrant Males

Schooling can be of vital importance to migrants for diversification and mobility in the job market. The proportion of white collar jobs and business/shop owners is slightly higher among highly educated migrants than among similarly educated non-migrants, especially in Nayanagar (Appendix Tables 5 and 6). Most non-migrant males with 11-12 years of education who remained in the village were members of either the class of landlords or rich peasants. At the other end, for most of those with less than 5 years of schooling, the jobs available in the villages as well as at the destination were as manual workers, in agriculture or at non-agricultural tasks. Although migration enlarges chances of getting paid work, we see little impact of migration on diversification of jobs and socio-economic mobility.

It should be noted that most migrants with less than 6-8 years of schooling worked as manual workers at agricultural and other tasks. In other words, we see no effects of schooling on jobs for those with middle school education.

Gender

Among women, largely non-migrants, we examined the relation between occupational category and years of schooling for two age groups, 20-39 years and 40+ years. Two points of interest emerge. First, the impact of education on female occupations is visible only among highly educated young women of Nayanagar. Secondly, in both villages, the proportion of persons engaged in “housework” is high among young females. This suggests that there are limited jobs other than agricultural labour at the village level, especially in the smaller village of Katkuian. This tendency of women withdrawing from the labour market has been noted in other recent studies. The PARI survey also shows that younger females are more likely to be reported as “housewife” than older women.

Conclusion

The PARI survey of two villages of Bihar, Katkuian and Nayanagar, reveals a situation of great underdevelopment in respect of schooling and literacy. The most striking figure is of the median years of schooling -- a few years for males and zero for females in both villages, more than 70 years after independence. We find that a section of the village population has enjoyed higher education for decades, but this has had little impact on the rest of village society. This suggests that strategic efforts are needed, both by the government and by people of the village, to improve educational levels of the people.

At the same time, we also noticed positive signs, such as the improvement of school enrolment among children, boys and girls, in the two villages. More than 80 per cent of children were enrolled in schools at the time of the survey. It is expected that the number of years of schooling and literacy among the people will improve in the coming decades. However, universal education has not yet been achieved and there is still some irregularity and fragility in schooling of those currently enrolled as seen from data on activity status and the age-grade gap.

Finally, we attempted to see the impact of schooling on employment opportunities. Education resulted in occupational diversification and upward mobility only among the highly educated, both among non-migrants and migrants. The impact of schooling on employment was limited for those with elementary and middle-level schooling.