Word: bihar
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Because of recent political agitation in India's Bihar state, a force of at least 1,000 security men was present last week when the Indian Minister for Railways, Lalit Narayan Mishra, 51, formally opened a new 36-mile-long rail line from Samastipur to Muzaffarpur. Mishra had just finished his remarks and was stepping down from the dais when a time bomb exploded, ripping the dais to pieces and wounding Mishra as well as 24 bystanders (four of whom later died). Mishra himself died the following day during emergency surgery...
Kissinger also discussed the question of food aid to India. Mrs. Gandhi refuses to acknowledge publicly that thousands of people have died of starvation in the states of Bihar and West Bengal (see SPECIAL SECTION). The Prime Minister, having proudly proclaimed her country's self-sufficiency after a record harvest in 1971, was reluctant to accept any aid that made India seem to be on the American dole again...
Lack of Concern. Shitala's scourge has been particularly felt in the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam. Yet no where has the goddess lashed harder than in Bihar. With 70,393 reported cases, that state accounts for 60% of the world's current total of known smallpox victims...
Officials blame much of the epidemic on the primitive conditions in Bihar. The state, which has a population of more than 60 million, is one of India's most backward. Ninety percent of its people live in villages that are little more than clusters of one-room mud huts. The people are largely illiterate, and some are afraid to report the disease for fear they will be socially ostracized and deprived of their jobs. "Some of these people would sooner travel 100 miles to a temple of Shitala to pray to her to spare their children than report...
...main cause of the epidemic is indifference. Although the Indian government, as part of its last five-year plan, set aside $21.6 million for smallpox immunization programs to be administered by the states, Bihar leaders made little use of the available funds. Engaged in an internecine political struggle for control of the state government, they failed to enforce a plan for immunizing the local population. Their lack of concern has apparently infected even health workers. While the epidemic rages, 2,200 Bihari doctors and health personnel are threatening to strike unless their salary demands...