India's 'Bimaru' states continue to lag, shows UN report

[Neo]

India's 'Bimaru' states continue to lag, shows UN report

Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, September 7, 2005|20:33 IST


India continues to face the paradox of some states in the north in abject poverty and others in the south registering dynamic growth, says a UN report, confirming noted demographer Ashish Bose's 'Bimaru' theory.

"Extreme poverty is concentrated in rural areas of the northern poverty-belt states including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal," says UNDP's Human Development Report for 2005 released globally Wednesday.

"Growth has been most dynamic in other states, urban areas and services sector," it says, while seeking answers to another paradox in India as to why accelerated income growth has not resulted in faster reduction of poverty.

In a study in 2001, Bose had offered insights into how Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were blocking India's progress and had coined the descriptive 'Bimaru' for them, which literally means sick in Hindi.

The term draws its name from the first letters of the four states.

The UNDP report says while rural poverty has fallen rapidly in some states such as Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, less progress has been made in the northern states. It also notes while rural employment is rising, farm growth is just two percent.

"India may be a world leader in computer software, but when it comes to basic immunisation services for children in poor rural areas, the record is less than impressive," it adds.
"Some of India's southern cities may be in the midst of a technology boom, but one in every 11 Indian children dies in the first five years of life for lack of low-technology, low-cost interventions," says the report.

"The deeper problem facing India is its human development legacy. In particular, pervasive gender inequalities, interacting with rural poverty and inequalities among states, are undermining the potential for growth into human development."

India continues to languish at 127th position among 177 nations in this year's Human Development Index, even as it has been hailed as a major success story on globalisation.

[Ray]

When you have a spiritual foundation, you look at poverty differently then. I presume that would be the Bimaru's excuse.

For West Bengal, I can say with some authority. It is the Communists' game plan since they have ruled WB for 21 years to have poverty so that the votes are their's for the asking.

However, the new CM of WB has gone in a big way for privatisation and FDI and is hardly a Commie.

MP, UP and Bihar are feudalistic and ever since VP Singh to stay in power (though he was chucked out) played the caste card and OBC it has sunk these states further and so they can hardly surface.

Neo,

There is something called a Vote Bank politics in India wherein religion and caste is used to stay in power. Until that goes, the rest of India will progress and they (Bimaru where it works) will have clowns like Lallu Pershads at their helm.

[Sameer]

There is no denying that the BIMARU states lag behind the rest of India, the South for example is doing very well, if we were to take out the BIMARU states, India is equally China in GDP growth rates.

The reasons why the BIMARU states are behind lie in them being more feudalitic and in some respects backwards, for example, the cast system and such fights are prominent in Bihar, in the rest of India such things have almost dissapeared or are decreasing. In fact its funny you would post this, Biharis were reluctant to have new elections or have the elcted politicians run the state preferring the Presidential rule over the state.


I do not think that any Indian is in denial that India is poor, what is clear is thatpoverty has decreased by 10% since 1994 and that 30M people are joining the middile class every year.

[Neo]

When you have a spiritual foundation, you look at poverty differently then. I presume that would be the Bimaru's excuse.

For West Bengal, I can say with some authority. It is the Communists' game plan since they have ruled WB for 21 years to have poverty so that the votes are their's for the asking.

However, the new CM of WB has gone in a big way for privatisation and FDI and is hardly a Commie.

MP, UP and Bihar are feudalistic and ever since VP Singh to stay in power (though he was chucked out) played the caste card and OBC it has sunk these states further and so they can hardly surface.

Neo,

There is something called a Vote Bank politics in India wherein religion and caste is used to stay in power. Until that goes, the rest of India will progress and they (Bimaru where it works) will have clowns like Lallu Pershads at their helm.

Is Delhi aware of the fact that transmigration may become a serious domestic problem (housing, employment etc) in future if the mass population of these so called bimaru states may shift to more developped states due lack of economic growth?

[Sameer]

Is Delhi aware of the fact that transmigration may become a serious domestic problem (housing, employment etc) in future if the mass population of these so called bimaru states may shift to more developped states due lack of economic growth?

Everyone is aware of this and has been aware of this since 1991, the divergence amongst Indian states is not new and dates back to 1981. Mass migration has not yet happened to the scale feared but it has happened to an extent.

[lemontree]

Is Delhi aware of the fact that transmigration may become a serious domestic problem (housing, employment etc) in future if the mass population of these so called bimaru states may shift to more developped states due lack of economic growth?

Neo,
Transmigration as you know it does not take place here. It is more or less ristricted to the male folk who move to major metros and do jobs or run small businesses. The families of these men remain in the villages to take care of the land and farm (whatever little they hold).
The men work in jobs like security, drivers (private or taxis/autorickshaws), pan shop owners (and they do rather well), free lance carpenters for interior decorators (they earn well to) etc.
The major down fall is that the income earned by these men does not reflect in the states economy as most of it is liquid cash. These states are any way run by regional jokers to say the least, whose only aim is "gaddi/kursi" (seat of power).
The people of these states are not dunces either, my carpenter who did my home furniture told me that if I ever need a weapon for protection he would help - his local village has a gunsmith that makes .315 cal bolt action (hunting) rifles. Its like an Indian Peshawar but extended in the whole of Bihar.