- Gujarat’s economy is about 2.6 times bigger than Bihar
- Bihar has several million more people than Gujarat
- Bihar’s towns are far more crowded at 5,058 persons per sq km compared to 3,477 persons per sq km in Gujarat’s urban areas
- Share of population in the 0-6 year age group in the two states varies widely
- Just about half of Bihar’s population claim to be literate compared to 68% in Gujarat
In about a fortnight, Bihar will begin voting to elect a new set of MLAs to its legislative assembly. The battle lines are drawn and the contest promises to be very keen with Prime Minister Narendra Modi throwing his weight behind the BJP-led NDA’s campaign, while incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his allies hope to put up a strong defence and form the government yet again.
Bihar has made some progress on economic and infrastructure development over the past 10 years during Kumar’s tenure as CM. The state is among the more rapidly expanding economies in the country, but growth has not been good enough to deliver large number of people out of poverty.
Modi often extols the virtues of the Gujarat-model of development in his election speeches. Without getting into the merits and demerits of the Gujarat model, it would be useful to see how distant Bihar is from Gujarat on various parameters. It is evident that Bihar has a lot of catching up to do and even with all the might and resources at his disposal, the PM would find the task to taking Bihar to Gujarat’s level really arduous. Here’s why.
Income disparity: Gujarat’s economy was estimated at Rs 452,625 crore in 2013-14 at constant 2004-05 prices, which makes it about 2.6 times bigger than Bihar’s Rs 173,409 crore economy, thanks to rapid industrialisation and infrastructure development. Bihar lags as it remains largely an agrarian economy and infrastructure construction picked up only over the last decade.
Besides, because Bihar has several million more people than Gujarat, per capita income is just a fraction of that enjoyed in the western state. According to Niti Aayog data, per capita income in Gujarat at Rs 63,168 in 2013-14 at constant 2004-05 prices was about four times Bihar’s per capita income, estimated at Rs 15,506.
Poverty: If Bihar’s average per capita income is low, it is safe to conclude that the state has a large number of people living in poverty. The numbers prove that too. According to estimates of the Rangarajan Committee published in 2014, based on per capita monthly consumption expenditure data for 2011-12, 41.3% of Bihar’s population was below the poverty line compared to 27.4% in Gujarat. Thus, 43.8 million people in Bihar are estimated to be poor, about 2.6 times more than the 16.9 million poor in Gujarat.
Slow urbanisation: The share of land urbanised in both states is miniscule – 2.5% in Bihar and 3.8% in Gujarat. Yet, 42% of Gujarat’s population lives in towns and cities compared to 11% in Bihar, according to Census 2011. Not surprisingly, Bihar’s towns are far more crowded at 5,058 persons per square kilometre compared to 3,477 persons per sq km in Gujarat’s urban areas.
Young population: This is a good indicator of the level of education of particularly women, stage of economic development and family planning. The share of population in the 0-6 year age group in the two states varies widely. Over 18% of Bihar’s population was aged 6 years or below at the time of Census 2011 compared to a shade under 13% in Gujarat. Bihar also has a far larger share of all children in the country aged below 6 years at about 12% compared to less than 5% in Gujarat. This implies that Bihar’s population will continue to grow for many decades even it starts to shrink in states with better social development indicators.
Literacy: Just about half of Bihar’s population claimed to be literate at the time of Census 2011 compared to 68% in Gujarat. The gap narrows in urban areas – about 65% of urban Bihar was literate compared to urban Gujarat’s 76%. But it is widespread illiteracy in Bihar that shocks. More than 11% of all illiterate people in India live in Bihar compared to Gujarat’s share of a little more 4%. The number of illiterate people in Bihar is more than 2.5 times the number in Gujarat. According to Census 2011 data, 51.6 million people in Bihar – equivalent to 85% of the population of Gujarat – could not read or write. The number of illiterates in Gujarat was 19.3 million.
Not surprisingly, female literacy rate lags overall literacy rate in both states, but a lot more in Bihar. While 61% of the female population in Gujarat is literate, in Bihar, only 42% are, according to Census 2011 data.
These are just a few instances that illustrate the wide gap in development of the two states. Bihar compares poorly on access to basic amenities such as treated drinking water in taps (3.1% vs 39.9%), electricity for lighting (16.4% vs 90.4%) and LPG for cooking (8.1% vs 38.3%). Irrespective of which alliance finally wins the election, development needs to be accelerated and that cannot be achieved with just slogans or special packages. A well thought out plan needs to be executed.
(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist)
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