After 10 years of inaction where no new schools were opened and no teachers recruited, one of the best indicators of a changing Bihar is a group of girls cycling to school.
Archana Masih reports from the state.
Three times a week Deepti Kumari comes to Kilkari after school where she does things she has never done before.
She paints, makes toys from old newspapers and reads children’s magazines.
The daughter of a khaini (raw tobacco) seller in Patna, Deepti spends most of her day after school in an activity centre set up by the Bihar government for underprivileged children going to state-run primary schools.
Like her, most of the children making paper birds under a tree that afternoon, had never painted or done any craft work before.
Mukesh, a Class 9 student whose father sells bananas, is learning judo and has won two medals in a district-level competition.
Shail, a Class 6 student whose father is no more and whose mother stitches buttons for a living, is learning Madhubani painting.
Please click on the Next button to read more about how life is changing for the children of Bihar, once condemned as one of India’s worst-run states.