More than 20,000 children unable to return to school six months on from Bihar floods

Six months after India experienced its worst flooding in more than half a century, more than 20,000 children in the northern state of Bihar have still not returned to regular schooling.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Most will not be able to resume full-time education for at least another six months because rebuilding damaged schools has not yet started.

Instead, many children are only receiving education in the outdoors or, at best, in makeshift structures. We fear this could mean many children drop out of school altogether which will leave them with little chance of being able to escape a life of poverty.

Four million people were affected when the Kosi river overflowed last August after an embankment in neighbouring Nepal was breached. Some 300,000 people were stranded and a further 250,000 need to be evacuated. Hundreds of schools were destroyed.

Non-governmental organisations are currently prohibited by the Bihar government from constructing schools in the state because of concerns over building standards.

We provided emergency aid to more than 30,000 families in Bihar and the neighbouring state of Orissa after the floods last August. And we're currently in talks with the government for permission to build schools.

We're currently providing 20,000 children with non-formal education in 250 shelters — known as ‘child friendly spaces’ — set up after the floods. We hope this will reduce the number of children who drop out of school completely and end up as child labourers.

The child friendly spaces also reduce the risk of children being trafficked for work or sex exploitation — which normally increases after natural disasters — and gives them somewhere to seek refuge if the area floods again.

Shireen Vakil Miller, director of policy at Save the Children India said: “For the 120 million children living in poverty in India — which is equivalent to double the total UK population — getting an education is the one of the key ways of being able to escape the cycle of poverty in which they are trapped.

“Hundreds of schools were damaged and destroyed in the floods last August and we fear that up to 40% of children might drop out of school completely as happened after Bihar was hit by severe floods in 2007.

“Bihar, which is one of the poorest states in India, has made rapid progress in the last two years in providing education for its children but the floods have unravelled this good work.

“These children have suffered so much already, many of them are still traumatised by having to flee for their lives the when the floods came and many of them lost friends or family. We will support the children through the coming months and years to ensure as many as possible get back to school and get a better chance in life.”

Quick facts

Bihar is one of the poorest states in India.
Some 38% percent of the 82 million people living there are illiterate.
61 in every 1,000 children do not live to see their fifth birthday.

What you can do

Read more about our work in India during the floods.

Watch our film on trafficking after the floods.

Donate now to help us rebuild lives in India.

Order our publication Education in Emergencies.

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