Patna, April 11: Chief minister Nitish Kumar has identified education and women self-help groups as key areas that would help change the status of women in Bihar.

"Had you asked me, I would have put education before health as a topic of discussion," he said while winding up a media workshop, "Health, Women and Development", organised jointly by Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) and Population Foundation of India (PFI) on Saturday. He read out a list of actions taken by his government for women in the state - 50 per cent reservation in panchayats, civic bodies and primary teacher jobs and 35 per cent quota in the police force among others.

Nitish recalled that when he came to power in 2005, he found 12.5 per cent of children were out of school.

"The number of girl students beyond Class VI was dismal. It was noticed that when the children grew up, their parents could not afford new clothes for them. So they stopped sending their girls to schools. That is when I started the uniform scheme for girl students in Bihar. The enrolment of girls in schools shot up after that," Nitish said.

The chief minister said it was while studying statistics that he found the fertility rate in Bihar was 3.8 - much higher than the national average. "But I found that when it comes to girls who had passed Class X, the fertility rate was on a par with the national average. So I started the cycle scheme, which not only increased enrolment of girls from Class VII to X, but also changed society's mindset," he said.

Further, he learnt, the fertility rate was below the national average when it came to girls who had passed Plus II. So, we are now engaged in getting Plus II schools opened in each panchayat. Education is closely associated with stabilization of population, which is essential for Bihar. Every 10 years, Bihar's population increases by 25 per cent. But the 94,000sqkm area remains constant," he said.

He recalled his interaction with women self-help groups. "They are not only running PDS shops and other financial activities, they are also fighting child marriage, foeticide, domestic violence and other social evils," he said pointing out that there were around three lakh self-help groups and it was the government's aim to create seven lakh more. He stressed that these self-help groups would have a positive impact on the declining sex ratio in the state. He spoke on the need for building toilets and said his government had started a scheme to build toilets for not just below poverty line (BPL) groups but also for the above poverty line population.

Several prominent journalists expressed their views at the workshop. A preview of the TV serial " Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon" was screened on the occasion.