The Bihar government’s high pride in achieving a growth rate of 16.71 per cent during 2011-2012, the highest in the past five years, have been dented by reports of rural distress like poor families selling away their children to avoid hunger.
Two instances of desperately poor mothers offering to sell their minor children for pitiably paltry sums of money this week have renewed concerns about Bihar’s acute rural poverty and the efficacy of social welfare schemes. While such alarming reports have led social activists to point at the massive corruption in various welfare schemes, ministers in the state’s JD(U)-BJP government have reacted with statements widely viewed as insensitive.
Shannu Khatun, 35, of the north-eastern Araria district, reportedly sold one of her male twins, both four months old, to a Nepali couple for a mere `62 paid in Nepali currency. With her physically challenged husband, Mohammed Shaheed, having no income, the family of five had been starving for the past few months. The woman went missing after the news of her selling a twin was out on July 15, but was located by authorities on Wednesday.
In the southern Nawada district, Dulari Devi, about 35, was prevented by the local people at Hisua when she was reportedly selling her four minor daughters, aged between nine days and six years, for just `800 on Wednesday. “I have no means of arranging food for myself and my children. I was ready to sell as he (the man willing to buy) was offering `800 for the four children,” she said the poor woman.
“These women have to be blamed. They committed a crime by trying to sell their children. If they were hungry, they could have sold their land and property. How could they sell their family members?” said Bihar labour minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal of the BJP. Social welfare minister Praveen Amanullah of the JD(U) said: “These things happen. Something or the other like this keeps happening. But these things should not happen”.
Economist and political observer Nawal Kishore Choudhary said: “Large-scale corruption in all social welfare schemes in Bihar have failed to offer any benefit to the poor.”