Description
India is a diverse and complex country, with different states having different levels of development and governance. Among the 28 states of India, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar are the two most populous, with a combined population of over 300 million people. However, these two states have also been historically lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of economic growth, social indicators, and political stability.
Untold Story
Friends, the two states of India, UP and Bihar, have always been mentioned together because more than 37 crore people of India live in these two states alone. But today a huge difference is visible between these two states. Because on one hand UP is presenting a new example of development, on the other hand Bihar still fits in the image of a sick state. But the question is why? What is the reason that UP is moving ahead very fast in the race of development while Bihar is still lagging far behind. Let us understand this entire issue in details.
So friends, apart from UP and Bihar, states like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand are also included in the category of BIMARU states. But these states have tried hard to remove this tag due to better decisions and infrastructure development. Due to which development is seen here and the living standard of the people has also improved a lot. But Bihar and UP have remained at the last position in this. But if we look at the state economy of UP and Bihar at present, then UP seems to be performing much better than Bihar. At present UP.
It is the state with the second largest economy in India, which has a share of two percent in the total GDP of the country. According to the UP State Budget presented this year, the GDP of UP has crossed ₹24.3900000 crore. Which was only Rs 13,00,000 crore in 2016-17. And seeing such rapid growth, experts also believe that perhaps in the coming few decades, it will overtake even the top Maharashtra state. If we look at the economy growth rate of Bihar, then it has surprised everyone a lot.
During the last 15 to 17 years, the size of Bihar’s GDP and Bihar’s budget has increased almost 10 times and today it is counted among the fifth fastest growing states of the country, whose GDP is ₹8.9800000 crore. Now, even though there has been a lot of growth in comparison to previous years, there is still a huge difference between the GDP of Bihar and UP. But friends, GDP cannot be the only accurate parameter to analyze the economic position of two states because there is a huge difference in the population of both the states.
While the population of UP is 24 crore, the population of Bihar is 13 crore. In such a situation, if we leave aside the GDP of the entire state and look only at the per capita income, then we will get a better and accurate picture. So friends, in 2023, the per capita income of UP was 83 thousand ₹ 565. Whereas the per capita income of Bihar was 54 thousand ₹ 110. This means that in this matter also UP is way ahead of Bihar. Along with this, if you look at its poverty rate, then one out of every three people in Bihar is living below the poverty line.
Whereas in UP, one out of every five people falls in the category below the poverty line. While in UP 26.35% population is poor, in Bihar this percentage has reached 36.95%. This means that there is a gap of about 10 percent between the two states, which cannot be said to be less at all. Apart from this, urbanization of the status or we can say urbanization also has a big contribution in their economic growth. In such a situation, if we take a look at the urbanization of both the states, then according to the census of 2011, the urban population of Bihar was 11.8 million.
Whereas in Uttar Pradesh only 22.28 percent of the 2011 population was living in urban areas and this difference is also double. Now friends, when we are discussing all these parameters, how can we forget the literacy rate which plays the role of the most important pillar in economic growth. But unfortunately in this also Bihar is down by about six percent compared to UP. Because while the literacy rate of UP is sixty 57 percent, that of Bihar is 60 percent.
And friends, if we also look at the public image of both the states, while Bihar remains in the news due to the riots happening every day, the developments and new initiatives taking place in UP are seen making headlines in the newspapers. Although now it is not that UP is much ahead in this matter but it can be considered better than Bihar. So friends, now we come to our main question that what are those regions due to which Bihar is lagging behind and UP is moving ahead in the race of development and only the state government.
So friends, some experts believe that the tender ship of the government is responsible for the position of these two states today. If we look at it on one hand, Nitish Kumar has been sitting on the chair of Chief Minister of Bihar for almost 18 years. Whereas in UP the Chief Minister keeps changing all the time. Sometimes Mayawati, sometimes Akhilesh Yadav and currently Yogi Adityanath. Due to competition, whoever has been the Chief Minister in UP has taken decisions accordingly and has contributed to the development of UP.
But it is not that due to the tenure shift of the government, Bihar has not seen development in the last two rackets, rather it has tried to improve almost every parameter as compared to before. But the problem is that this is not enough and if we compare Bihar with UP, then the growth meter of Bihar appears even slower. Experts believe that the reason for this is the stable politics there, in which due to less competition, the people here and the development of the state were not given as much priority as Bihar really needs.
Friends, another big reason for Bihar lagging behind is the floods that occur here every year. Because about 70 percent of the population here is always vulnerable to floods. The rivers coming to Bihar from Nepal, whose origin is in the Himalayan valleys, due to the slope, their water comes to Bihar at a high speed every year. Due to which 28 out of 38 districts here suffer the devastation of floods every year.
Kosi, Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla Balan, Ganga, Budhi Gandak, Saryu, Punpun, Mahananda, Son, Lakhandei, Dhara and Falgun, these are the rivers which cause more destruction every year than bringing prosperity to Bihar. On one hand, these rivers make the fields fertile, due to which Bihar has become an agricultural state and 58% of its population is dependent on agriculture. But these same rivers destroy millions of hectares of agricultural land every year. Thousands of people lose their lives due to floods. A large number of people’s houses and crops are destroyed and the infrastructure development here also suffers huge damage.
Besides, public and private property worth crores of rupees also gets damaged. Understand that every year a large part of Bihar starts from zero even after being developed. People settle there again, construction takes place, crops are planted and they get ruined again. This has been going on for many centuries which has become a major hindrance in the development of Bihar and this disaster can be seen as a major disadvantage in comparison to UP.
However, now it is not the case that there are no floods in UP, rather many districts there also get hit by floods every year. But compared to Bihar, there is less devastation there which helps in keeping UP ahead of Bihar. Now friends, we cannot deny this.
Bihar has developed very rapidly in the last few years. But this development is limited to only a few cities. For example, if we look at the latest regional data of Bihar, about 35 percent of its economy comes from Patna alone. Whereas the contribution of other districts is not as much as is necessary for the economic growth of this state. Whereas if we look at UP, then the development here can be clearly seen in many cities of the state.
However, even though Noida is at the forefront in this and has a major contribution in the economy of UP, apart from this there are many cities which have a big share in the economy of UP. Like the capital Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Agra, Mathura, Meerut and Ghaziabad, there are many such cities which are performing well and industrialization has got a lot of boost there as compared to before. In such a situation, the development of UP is not limited to just one or two cities but is actually increasing in the state and Bihar is lagging far behind in this matter.
Now friends, almost every state has some natural advantage and Bihar also had this advantage due to its fertile land and mineral resources. This was the reason why the British had established many industries here and Bihar also became very popular in trade, from where things were exported all over the world. Because of these regions, after independence, there was almost no industrialization in the country. Whereas Bihar remained an industrial spot.
Due to the abundance of valuable minerals here, companies wanted to set up close to the mines, so that they did not have to spend a lot of money and time on transportation of raw materials or minerals. Its impact was that development came to a halt in those parts of the country where these advantages were not present. Keeping this in view, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru came up with the Freight Equalization Policy in 1952, under which subsidies started being provided on the expenses incurred in carrying the goods.
In such a situation, when raw minerals started becoming cheaper in other states, then companies started shifting to those places where ports were present so that trade could be done in other countries also. In this way, this policy of the government broke the back of the development of Bihar. After which people started becoming very dependent on agriculture and due to this dependency the speed of industrialization became very slow. Apart from this, whenever the government tried to set up an industry here, getting the farmers to vacate the land became a very complicated task.
Many times the company had to wait for many years but due to non-availability of land, their project could never move forward. Whereas industrialization in UP had started from 1961 itself. Many cities like Kanpur, Meerut, Agra, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur had picked up the pace of the industry from that time itself. However, like Bihar, in UP too this speed is much faster due to poor law and order. There was no way that it could be taken out of the image of a sick state. Now friends, thousands of years ago, students from every corner of the world used to come to Bihar, famous as Education Hub, to study.
But today this state has lagged far behind in promoting itself in this sector. Apart from Patna, its big renowned institutes are limited to one or two cities only and due to the absence of a large number of colleges or universities, lakhs of students here are forced to go to other states to study. Whereas in UP, there are many such famous institutes like Aligarh Muslim University, BHU, IIT Kanpur, Lucknow University, Agra’s Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University and IIM Lucknow which have a different place in the country.
Not only do students from every corner of the country come to study here, but the number of students coming from foreign countries is also quite high. This is the reason why UP is far ahead of Bihar in terms of educational institutions, which plays a major role in the economic growth of UP. Now friends, there is one more thing in which Bihar has lagged far behind UP and that is the law and order situation here. The law and order situation of Bihar has always been worrying due to which the entire development is being affected.
We cannot hold the freight equalization policy alone responsible for the absence of industries in Bihar, rather the law and order of Bihar has also been very responsible for this. Due to increasing extortion and hooliganism here, no company wants to setup its industry. Even all these regions Due to this, those industries which were in Bihar for many years are also being locked. However, Bihar government has also promised to give subsidy to companies for setting up new industries.
But due to poor law and order, no one wants to move to Bihar because there are always reports of extortion or hooliganism in the newspapers. In this way, due to lack of new industries and closure of old factories, the lack of employment in Bihar is increasing and due to this, not only is the state lagging behind but the living standard of the people is also falling. If we talk about UP, the law and order here was similar to that of Bihar a few decades ago.
But now the government here adopts a very strict attitude towards law and order. Many times there are reports that bulldozers were run on the property of criminals, they were arrested or teams were formed to search for them. Due to all these steps, there has been a clear improvement in the law and order situation of UP. Due to which a good image of the state has been created and the scope of investment has also increased. Many new industries have been set up here.
Besides, big industrialists from many countries are also showing their interest here. Now friends, UP and Bihar are not only the poorest states of the country but also both of them come at the last position in terms of GDP per capita. The real population is more than 37 crores. In such a situation, these status Being backward has a direct impact on the one fourth population of India. Therefore, if the country has to develop, then it is very important to pay attention to the development of these states also, so that our entire country can climb the stairs of emotional growth.
Now for this, the government will have to take many such initiatives along with better opportunities for the people here, infrastructure development, so that the level of education can increase, people can get employment and the people here do not have to migrate. Because due to migration, a large group of skilled labor moves out of the state, the impact of which is clearly visible on the economy of the state. In such a situation, both these states still have to climb a long path of development, which requires support from both the government and civilians.
Only then will this state be able to come out of the tag of a sick state and set an example of development. Well friends, what initiatives should the government take for the development of these states? You must tell us your opinion by commenting.
Anyway, see you again with the powerful explanation of the Success Story.
