While mass predilections in Bihar are still veering towards the male child, the Nitish Kumar government will be pleased with the provisional Census 2011 data for the State, which has indicated a 20 per cent jump in the State's female literacy rate.
As per the report, literacy rates for women in Bihar have soared from 33.12 per cent in 2001 to 53.33 per cent this census year.
Alto gether 18 children were born blind in the arsenic affected blocks of Bhojpur district during the past three months, Bihar health minis- ter Nand Kishore Yadav confirmed on Wednesday.
The cause of the blindness was not yet known, but health department officials were in touch with ophthal- mologists, he said.
PATNA: Altogether 18 children were born blind in the arsenic affected blocks of Bhojpur district during the past three months, Bihar Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav confirmed.
The cause of the blindness was not yet known, but health department officials were in touch with ophthalmologists, he said.
ANAND S.T. DAS
A frightening spread of encephalitis and cerebral malaria in Bihar's northern and southern districts has killed at least 69 children since July first week, underlining what health experts and Opposition leaders have termed as insufficient medical facilities, poverty and lack of hygiene in the state's rural belts.
