Name: Bablu Kumar Singh
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-16, Issue-2, (July-December)
Page Number: 23-30
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20285899

ABSTRACT
Education and health are two central pillars of human development because they determine the productive capacity, social mobility and long-term welfare of a population. The present study examines the comparative development status of three important North Bihar districts—Darbhanga, Madhubani and Samastipur—through selected educational and health indicators. The study is based mainly on secondary data drawn from Census 2011, NFHS-5-based district nutrition profiles, HMIS-linked district demographic estimates and official education and development reports. A composite development index is constructed through min–max normalization using literacy, female literacy, institutional delivery, child stunting, wasting, underweight, child anaemia and women’s anaemia indicators. The analysis shows that Samastipur records the highest composite score because of relatively better literacy and institutional delivery performance, while Madhubani occupies the middle position due to comparativel