Where Does Bihar Stands?
Posted : October 28, 2005 at 11:00 pm [IST]
N K SINGH, the famous bureaucrat from Bihar has come out with a good article on ‘The poverty and potential of Bihar’ in Financial Express, October 28, 2005. Some of the data are surprising and will please some readers.
Regional disparities. Bihar’s annual growth rate was 5.2% compared to all-India’s 5.6 % in the 1980s, declined to 3.46% in contrast to the national growth rate of over 6% in the 1990s. However, Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) figures place its average growth rate from 1993-94 to 2003-04 at 5.8% per annum, just under India’s 5.9% per annum.
Differences in the growth of per capita state domestic product (SDP): Bihar’s per capita growth rate actually fell from 2.97% annual in the 1980s to 1.86% in the 1990s, while for India it rose from 3.36% to 4.07%.
Population Growth: Bihar’s population growth rate actually increased between the 1980s and 1990s, from 2.14% to 2.43%, while India’s population growth rate declined from 2.44% to 1.94%.
Decline in poverty: During 1977-78 to 1983, the poverty ratio for India fell to 44.48%; Bihar’s stood at 62.22%. Planning Commission estimates show that the poverty ratio fell from 35.97% to 26.91% for India over 1993-2001; Bihar reduced its poverty level from 54.96% to 42.6%. Poverty levels are nearly 75% higher than the all-India average.
Infant mortality rate: While for India the decrease of infant mortality rate reduced marginally from 77 to 71, during 1991-2001, Bihar’s infant mortality rate dropped from 75 to 67 in this period. Similarly, life expectancy at birth during 2001 for Bihar was 65.23, higher than the national average of 64.77.
Poor, But Better Equity especially in rural areas: (as indicated by a lower Gini coefficient) Rural inequality in Bihar during 1983 was 0.272, below the national average of 0.291. It decreased to 0.236, while the national average was 0.266 during 1993-94, and remained below the national average (at 0.225) even in the more recent period.
Urban inequality: Urban inequality in Bihar started rising after 1993-94. The Gini coefficient increased from 0.283 in 1983 (compared to all-India 0.293), to 0.324 (all-India 0.327) in 1993, and 3.41 (all-India 0.327) in 1999-2000. The recent upswing is worrisome.
Literacy rate: During 2001, the literacy rate in Bihar was only 48%, far below the national average of 65%. Literacy was just 32.3% literacy in 1981, moving up to 38.54% in 1991.
The Human Development Index- (a composite of literacy, life expectancy and per capita income) Bihar still lags at 3.67%, compared to the Indian average of 4.7%.
Bihar ranks 11th out of the 15 major states in terms of social and economic infrastructure.
Road density: Bihar’s road density, at 101.8 km per one lakh population (as against 119.73 km per lakh in 1981), is higher than the national average of 25.82. Bihar’s road network remained the same as population grew, leading to a decline in density.
Railway density is also significantly higher than the national average. Bihar has 30.22 km per 1,000 square km of land area, as against the Indian average of 19.08.
Power infrastructure: Per capita consumption of electricity in Bihar is only 140.8 Kwh, compared to the all-India average of 354.7.
It will be difficult to conclude that there is no hope for Bihar. A new government can change the status of Bihar and make it look more respectable with a little focus on some key projects such as faster execution of road building and rural electrification. If it can give a governance with an orientation to development, the things can change in the next five years.
Read NK Singh’s ‘Blueprint for the new Bihar government’.
- Indra
Category: Government Policy/Administration |
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