Eleven years have passed since the State of Jharkhand has been carved out of its mother state Bihar. Though the demand for Jharkhand state was old as the Indian independence it only saw the dawn of the day as late as 15 November 2000. The past decade has seen it all except the light of the day. In the wake of demand for new states elsewhere (Purvanchal, Paschim Pradesh, Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh, Telangana, Vidarbha and Gorkhaland) it brings me to a situation of analysis of what good the division has done to Jharkhand.
The Jharkhand movement revolved around Jharkhandi identity, which disadvantaged societal groups articulated in order to augment political resources and influence the policy process in their favour. The Jharkhandi identity and the demand for autonomy was not premised solely on the uniqueness of its tribal cultural heritage, but was essentially a fallout of the failure of development policy to intervene in socio-economic conditions of both the adivasis and non-adivasis in the region.
When the daughter state was carved out of Bihar, its residents had expected it to emerge as one of the most developed state of India, till date an unfulfilled desire. The facts speak for it.
Almost all the national highways in the state, except NH 2, are in bad shape. It takes almost two hours to cover 60 km on NH 33 (Jamshedpur-Tamar) despite repeated government announcements to make the stretch crater-free. The state has failed to add a single mega watt to power generation. When Jharkhand was formed, it had three state-owned power plants. In 10 years, the state has not built one. Similarly, in healthcare, the promise of 24x7 health centres in rural area has remained on paper only.
There has been some improvement in education after the state got a Central University and an IIM in Ranchi. But these have failed to stop migration of students. On an average, more than 100,000 students migrate for degree and professional courses. Lack of development in the far-flung areas, despite the state’s 11% GDP growth in 2010-11, has allowed Maoists to gain traction in Jharkhand. The state has shown relatively lower economic growth in the past decade. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for 2000-01 to 2009-10 has been 11.33% compared to 12.54% in other general-category states.
Though the state has witnessed about 7% economic growth but considering the huge boom in mining over the past decade, Jharkhand should have done much better. Whereas Chhattisgarh had an average of 8.8% and Uttarakhand was rocketing up at 10.8%. Uttarakhand has tapped its vast hydro potential to become a seller of power to northern grid while Chhattisgarh has opened up its mineral resources for exploitation in a big way.
During the tenure 2001-02 to 2010-11 food grain production has dipped by a massive 19% in spite of the fact that agriculture is the mainstay of the majority of the population and food grain the most widely cultivated crops.
On the employment front out of the 39.6% registered households for MGNREGA only 10.9% have been given jobs. Though there has been some improvement in the number of primary and upper primary schools leading to its effective literacy rate rising from 54% in 2001 to 68% in 2011. The infant Mortality rate has declined from 70 in 2000 to 44 in 2009.
Naxalism continues to be a menace in the state playing upon the grievances of the tribals. Political instability has been the feature of the state and the government was marred by various scams and corruption.
If creation of a smaller state was the justification provided for the development of this part of the former state Bihar then it has certainly failed to give it an expression. And the one question that looms large is that where do we from here?
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