The Hindu Business Line : Where women feel safer...

In Patna, the most visible sign of change as the Nitish government completes four months in office is finding more women on the roads late in the evenings. The ambience in the capital of a State notorious for kidnapping, looting, crimes and violence against women is one of a quiet confidence.

Confirming this, Renu Ranjan, Professor and HOD, Department of Sociology, Magadh Mahila College, says, "For long years, we never used to be out in the streets, unless absolutely necessary, after dark. In fact, I used to avoid going even with my husband and sons thinking why endanger their lives. But now I can casually return home alone in an auto rickshaw after 9 p.m. So a new kind of a confidence has come in the women that it is safe to be out on the roads."

As a college teacher, she is delighted that "finally we're being paid our salaries regularly. We'd been denied our pay for so long, that getting salary itself was news!" What's more, she's also started getting back her arrears; "I'd never thought I'd see the money due to me in this lifetime," she says.

The crowning glory for teachers like her is that Nitish Kumar has restored the retirement age to 62, the UGC norm. Of course, the new government has also told the heads of universities that the academic calendar would have to be maintained and examinations held in time.

S. Shafi Mashhadi, Vice-Chairman, Bihar Urdu Academy and former member of the Bihar Public Service Commission, points out how it was common for a three-year graduate course to take five years to complete, "because examinations were hardly ever held in time" as colleges would be closed on one excuse or the other.

So what about the students, at least the `netalog' among them?

Her response is a laugh. "The students also realise that bina padhey kam nahi chalenga; we have to study to pass. Neither agitations or demonstrations can save us." Apart from the teachers, the State's bureaucracy is also responding.

As Shabbir Hussein, a Patna industrialist points out, "Nitish has made it clear to the bureaucracy that he is willing to give them the autonomy they are demanding but along with that they will have to be accountable and responsible for their action or inaction. This itself is a big change in Bihar."

Another good news on the gender front is that in the forthcoming Panchayat elections, 50 per cent seats have been reserved for women. "This was the chief minister's idea; he said let women run the Panchayat," says G.S. Kang, Bihar's Chief Secretary.

As if on cue, the women have decided to contest even from the general constituencies.

So where does all this leave Lalu Prasad; is his rule over Bihar finally over?

"Oh no, it would be a mistake to assume that. With 25 per cent vote, his party had more votes than any other party. He forms a strong opposition, which in a way is good because this will keep checks on the government and compel it to work. Lalu has his own place in Bihar, and nobody knows this more than Nitish. That is why he is careful and in a hurry to get things moving," adds Renu.

(To be continued)

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