The region - Khadigram, Jamui District, Bihar

The most common languages in the region arround Khadigram are Hindi and Urdu. The main religion is Hindusim. Other religions like the Islam, for example, are subordinate.

Khadigram is located in Jamui District of Bihar State in north-eastern India. Bihar borders Nepal in the north and Bengal, with Colcatta as its Capital, in the east. The area around Khadigram is absolutely rural. Travelling to Khadigram from Europe is quite difficult. It takes about three days to reach there. One has to take a plane to Patna, Bihar´s capital. Patna has over one million citizens, but still is very provincial. From there a train brings you to Jamui Station. To continue the journey, a Tamtam (a two-wheel horse and cart) has to be hired. Nowadays, one can hire Tempos or sometimes even Jeeps at Jamui Station. Coming from Colcatta by train is possible, too. The trip will take at least five hours. The railtickets have to be booked in advance. People out there mainly live in mud huts. In most cases the families only have one room to stay at. The power supply is inrregular, mostly disconnected. The water does not come out of the tub, as we are used to. The people, or better the women, have to bring it to the houses from wells or the river. Very often they have to walk long distances to get water.

The people in and around Khadigram subsist on agriculture. Usually they are put into service as tenants and dependants. The average annual income is below Euro 450.

Bihar originally was a well known place in Asia. In 427 AD the first indian University was founded in Bihar. The Nalanda University was recogniesed all over Asia. One of the most famous chinese monk Hisuan Tsang mentioned Nalanda University in the year 629 AD. Bihar State was the center of Mahayana Buddhism. Asia´s history can not be told without mentioning this religious and cultural center. From there Buddhism spread to Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka and many other asian countries.

In the year 459 before our calendar, the greek ambassador who lived at the court of Maurya king Udayin mentioned Pataliputra, todays Patna, as a flourishing city.
Today the social structures in Bihar are most decrepit and the caste system is blooming. The government, headed by Laloo Prasad Yadav and his wife, is seated in Patna. It is famous for its corruption all over India. This is very unfortunate, because Laloo and his wife belong to the Dalit community. The people call themselves Dalit, what means untouchable. Laloo and his wife of course get more attention than any other politician in India. Because of their conduct the prejudice against Dalits is confirmed.

Bihar is placed in the Ganga plain and is therefore ecologically favoured. That is the reason why the population in this area is very high. There are more than 850 inhabitants per squarekilometre. All over India the average is about 375 inhabitants per squarekilometre. In total there are about 60 Million people living in Bihar. 55% of Bihar´s inhabitants live below the poverty line, calculated by the UN. This applies to about 40% of the Indians.

The main part of the population subsist from agriculture after a fashion and doesn´t has any access to clean water. - Not to mention dringing water, but only optically clean water ! Due to dirty drinking water there are lots of diseases with mostly bad course.

This is an additional problem to the people´s bad health conditions. Because of the bad nutrition and the fact that most of the people are vegetarians, they are unable to balance the lack of proteins.

The extreme working conditions, the lack of hygiene and the bad medical care are doing a lot of harm to the people there. The average life expectancy is about 56 years. On the countryside life expectancy is seldom above 45 years. For women the situation is even more burdening. They have to stand a high pressure, caused by a very early marriage, the fact of one pregnancy following another and the lack of hygiene even in dispensaries and hospitals.

According to the WHO the risk of dying because of pregnancy for a girl under 15 yeas of age is five times higher than for a woman of 20 years or older. The risk of complication sinks significantly from the age of 20 years.

There are lots of tribals living in the surrounding area of Khadigram, predominantly Santali and Munda. They are regarded as sheduled cast, as well as the Dalit. By law schools, colleges and universities have to admit 27% children of sheduled casts for education and training. This shall be an assurance that these children will have a better chance to earn their living. For many different reasons, there can only be found about 2.2% of them working as government employees in public offices, for example. Through our school we want to support children from sheduled casts to live a better life.