India has lately been known less for its poverty than for its clever software engineers, growing manufacturing processes and in various other fields. At least 55 per cent of the population in Bihar falls in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. Bihar is caught in a trap, i.e poverty trap and it is not going to be an easy job to break out from that.

On the eve of independence, Bihar had the lowest per capita income among all the states, Now, after 58 years of India’s independence, Bihar is still the state with the lowest per capita income.

For the poor people of Bihar the desire of a ‘new life’ may still be a distant dream. Even after 58 years of planned development more than half of the population of Bihar are classified as poor. Bihar is one of the country’s poorest states. 34 percent of the population of Bihar cannot afford even one proper meal per day.

Causes of Poverty
There are various causes of poverty in Bihar such as (i) Over population (ii) Poor land and water management for agriculture (iii) Mal-administration, poor governance and corruption (iv) Illiteracy (v) Poor Health care (vi) Lack of industrialization.

Bihar’s problems have an effect far beyond the state’s borders. Because of its huge population, Bihar is moving towards poverty very fast. Due to the lack of proper economy, people of Bihar are moving to the other states to earn both end meal. With few prospects at home, 15 million Biharis have left in search of work, competing with the poor across the country for low-end jobs and taxing the resources of more prosperous states. With this activity they are populating the other states too.

Bihar seems to top the country in the number of scams being probed by the CBI, right from the fodder scam, bitumen scam, poshahaar yojna scam, maidha scam, muster roll scam and so on. And the number of scams being probed by the states own vigilance department are just too many.

If people’s mental horizon is developed and endowed with a scientific temper, many of the ills besetting Bihar like over population, poor health, illiteracy and above all poverty are bound to be cured.

If India has to move ahead, it will have to take Bihar along with it. But ,How can India be called as developing country if the problem of poverty is increasing ?