NGO Networks for Health (Networks) is an innovative five-year global health project created to meet the burgeoning need for family planning, reproductive health, child survival, and HIV/AIDs (FP/RH/CS/HIV) information and services in developing countries. Aware that new forms of cooperation are called for if communities are to meet these challenges, five PVO Partners-ADRA, CARE, PATH, Plan International, and Save the Children-are collaborating to implement the Networks project. Networks' vision is to empower and enable individuals, families, and communities to improve their health. Networks pursues its vision by creating innovative and enduring NGO partnerships and fostering and supporting networks that enhance the scale and quality of FP/RH/CS/HIV programs. Networks has begun project activities in Armenia, Malawi, and Nicaragua with more countries to follow. Image:NGO networks

According to the Ministry of Rural Development, Bihar is at the top most position in the list of having poorest and backward districts. The no. of poor and backward districts in Bihar is the highest i.e., 38.

In all 100 districts coming under this category, Bihar takes its share as high as 38 while next comes Madhya Pradesh with 19 and is followed by Uttar Pradesh with 17 such districts. Maharashtra accounts for as many as 10 while West Bengal and Orissa have four districts each; Rajasthan and Sikkim have two districts; Haryana, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have one district each. Incidentally, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the northeastern States do not figure in this list implying that by the yardstick applied by the Ministry, these States do not have any poor and backward district.

Central Board of Direct Taxes has also drawn a list, which provide the number of both poor and industrially backward districts. Here again Bihar tops the list so far as poor districts are concerned with 20 and Uttar Pradesh qualifies for the same position in the industrially backward category with 24 districts. Bihar has 13 industrially backward districts and so has Madhya Pradesh.

Backward districts of Bihar are Nalanda, Bhojpur, Ranchi, Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Gaya, Nawada, Saran, Gopalgunj, W. Champaran, E. Champaran, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Begusarai, Samastipur, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Madhepura, Purnia, Katihar, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur, Godda, Sahebgunj, Dumka, Deoghar, Giridih, Hazaribag, Palamu, Lohardaga, Gumla, W. Singhbhum, Araria, Kishangunj.

After graduating from medical school, a young doctor in India begins his practice in Bihar district, one of India's poorest regions. On his first day at the clinic, a mother brings in her five-year-old son, who has had a fever, a cough, and no appetite for four days. It turns out the boy has an inflamed ear drum and throat, and a swelling in the neck. The ear and throat inflammation are symptoms of an ear infection, but the neck swelling indicates something more serious — a goitre caused by iodine deficiency. This fictional scenario, based upon real clinical experience, was created as part of an international project that aims to produce computer-assisted educational programs on micronutrient malnutrition. The main participants are researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and the Micronutrient Initiative, an international secretariat housed at the Ottawa headquarters of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

The floods-prone Kosi is 'Bihar's sorrow', a nightmare in flood management. Efforts to contain the river's annual season of fury by building embankments have not succeeded. A trip along the Kosi, in the thickly-populated and desperately poor northern Bihar, that revealed tales of woe.