In 1985, Ashish Bose coined the term BIMARU while preparing a report on national population growth rate for Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. At the time, he was a professor at Delhi’s Institute of Economic Growth. Ever since, BIMARU has been used to describe the four northern states that are seen as symptomatic of what’s wrong with India. Shobhan Saxena asks Bose, 80, if Bihar is proof that BIMARU is history.
Bihar is India’s second fastest growing state now. Is it time to drop it from the BIMARU list?
No, of course not. On what basis? Just because Nitish Kumar got re-elected on his development slogans? In the future may be we can drop Bihar from BIMARU, but right now Bihar is very much a BIMARU state. I can prove that with statistics. For example, it has 33% female literacy, which is a good indicator of growth and progress. The indicator of progress can’t be just 9 to 10% of growth rate of GDP.
Are you saying it’s a mistake to view development merely as GDP growth?
Absolutely. You may have GDP growth rate of 8 to 10% but if 60% of your population is poor that’s not development. With that level of poverty, it does not matter what your growth rate is. Unless every man, woman and child gets enough food to eat, proper place to live and clothes to wear — roti, kapda aur makaan — we can’t say a state is developing. And, anyway, states with low economic base tend to grow faster than states with a high base.
But reports suggest that things are changing in Bihar and other BIMARU states?
No matter what indicators you use, Bihar is always at the bottom or almost at the bottom. I think Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have a better chance of coming off the BIMARU list. Development is a continuous process, sustained effort is required on so many fronts. Nitish Kumar has done some good things in Bihar such as providing bicycles to girl students. That’s very important and innovative because he is encouraging the younger generation to go to school.
So, there is some hope for Bihar?
Yes. At least people are talking about development and things are moving on the ground. In a recent paper, I compared the four BIMARU states with the four southern states. The data clearly shows that BIMARU states are lagging in all social indicators.
Read more: ‘GDP growth is not enough’ – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/GDP-growth-is-not-enough/articleshow/7002595.cms#ixzz16broNeUM