India : Human development

India's economy is developing and so is the overall human development. Our democracy is maturing and with it our governance too. The backward states are slowly but surely catching up with the advanced ones that augur healthy growth for an emerging economy.

According to the Indian Human Development Report 2011, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Bimaru states, are far better in terms of upliftment of Dalits and Tribals than any other progressive states like Gujarat. It's a paradox that UP and Bihar are far behind Gujarat in terms of per capita SDP, economic growth and industrialization. Even in terms of alleviating malnutrition, Gujarat’s performance is far worse than the twin states of Hindi heartland. The report also states malnutrition as primary concern among the Union and State governments as 69.7 per cent of children below the age of 5 are anemic while 44.6 per cent are affected with malnutrition in the state of Gujarat. This has created flutters in the state machinery as Gujarat is the worst performer in this criterion. It essentially means that booming economy doesn’t ensure the same performance in social sector. It is ironical that media focus revolves mostly around its economic progress that portrays the image of the state and ignore completely the very significant social sector that portends the true condition of the poor masses. Therefore, there is every reason for Narendra Modi to be concerned about the socio-political marginalisation of his people in the state.Further efforts are needed rather than just attracting investment ventures to bring in improvement in health and other social arenas.

The report further reveals that the perils of lopsided growth have been checked and the inequality gap curbed. This has led to an significant improvement in Human Development Index over the last decade – an augment of 21 per cent from 0.387 in 1999-2000 to 0.467 in 2007-2008.

Bihar, for instance, was completely different 15-20 years ago from what it is today. Under the regime of Nitish Kumar, the state has grown expeditiously and is the second fastest growing economy in the country. Not only economic growth, its social sector investment is rising too that presage for better human development and long term sustainability. UP under Mayawati though mired by stagnation overall, its western segments (consisting mainly Noida and Gaziabad) are experiencing rapid progress. Both the states are the biggest gainers in both economic and social parameters in the 10th Five Year Plan. Even though their SDP has some distance to catch up – it is rising fast and with that other social factors are improving too.