socio-economic comparison between Haryana and Bihar over decade

‘socio-economic comparison between Haryana and Bihar over decade’
                                   - Randhir Gautam

My aim in this paper is to catalogue and explore important aspects of change in Haryana and Bihar over decade. I am going to present a comparative analysis of Haryana and Bihar, with particularf focus on the period since 2005. This paper is an attempt to conceptualize and analyse the
sociological determinants of change in these states over decades. It talks about some similarities as well as differences between Haryana and Bihar. I shall attempt to give a trend by briefly looking at a
few aspects with comparative analysis, for example, political, social, economic and cultural dynamics of Haryana and Bihar.

Methodology – Type of my research is descriptive and comparative. I used secondary resources and interview for my theory building and research finding.


Review of literature -
I read report of National Family Health Survey - 4, National Family survey – 3, Economic survey of
Haryana and Bihar (2017 -2018), Haryana and Budget Analysis 2018-19 and IGC Bihar Growth conference 2014. I also read some works of Dr Ravinder Kaur (IIT Delhi) and newspaper articles.


Haryana and Bihar have different stages in terms of the development process, as well as have vastly  different historical, economic, and geographic variables. But both states’ political process has had
influence of post- JP movement in terms of leadership. Caste-ridden social structure, patriarchal mind set, demographically large number of Hindu population, criminalization of politics, feudal
relationships, are the important constituents which construct the same sociological category of these states. caste is the basic category both in Haryana and Bihar. Once a columnist said ‘casting
one’s vote in today is like a giving away a daughter in marriage one marries in one’s own caste and
similarly voters for a party aligned with one’s own caste’.
Even after years of socio economic reforms the social development of Bihar and Haryana has not taken a turn for the better because there is uneven progress across social groups in both states.

Recently Amitabh Kant CEO of NITI Aayog said that Bihar along with three more states were keeping India backword. Bihar is known as one of the Bimaru state (underdeveloped state) while Haryana is
known as one of the richest state. Haryana per capita income is 196,982 p/a while per capita income
of Bihar is 29,178 p/a (census ,2011)
In Bihar 34 % Population live below poverty line while in Haryana the % is 11. (world Bank Group,
2012). Haryana has less poverty than most other Indian states, but inequality is high
(worldbank.org). The poverty rate for Scheduled Castes in both state is the highest among other social group. in fact, Poverty rate of Scheduled Castes in Bihar is the highest in India (51 %) while in Haryana is 24 %. Both states record progress in terms of female education and narrower gender gap in schooling.
Political leadership and governance -
Since 2005, the pace of poverty reduction in the state has picked up. The image of Nitish Kumar has become the brand Bihar. Media calls him Vikas Purus. The making of Brand Bihar becomes the symbol of qualitative change of Bihar. The politics of Brand Bihar is not only made to reshape the
image of Bihar as a state but it somehow changes the orientation of city dwellers towards Bihari. The very idea of Brand Bihar in the manifestation of his personality and leadership and social engineering skills. Bihar politics is revolving around personality of Nitish Kumar (janta dal united). Even the
election of 2016 was contested on the name of him. His track record as the Chief Minister is clean and inclusive. women, Pasmanda muslism and mahadalits are his vote bank.
Nitish Kumar imposed law and order situation with good governance and speedy trails, putting criminals behind bars with the short period of time. One of the main reason to decline in crime
graph is the autonomy of bureaucracy. Control over naxalism was another major achievement in
terms of law order situation. Data of CRIME STATISTICS OF BIHAR tells us from 2005 to 2010 number
of rapes, Dacoity, robbery, Ransom came down from 973 to 795, 1191 to 666, 2379 to 1538, 251 to72. Nitish government got the state legislature to pass the Bihar special court bill .2009 which.Among other things, will enable the state government to confiscate property of the errant officials
even if the matter was sub-judice, this gave sleepless night to corrupt officials. Such initiative weakens feadocracy (mixture of bureaucrats and upper castes). Bihar was one of the first state to
amend promotion in reservation which liberalise the hierarchal structure within Bihar police.
Since 2005, in Haryana also Hooda government came into power did a same type works what Nitish did in Bihar but his second term was not popular from that of his first term .From 2005 to 2014 – Bhuoinder Singh Hooda led government did good work at least in the
development of physical infrastructure. Approval of Hansi-Meham-Rohtak Railway line, foundation of Jind-sonipat Railway line, many national highways, Rohtak-Rewari Railway line and the
electrification of Rohtak- Delhi line, connecting Gurgaon to Delhi through Delhi Metro, railway was laid urbanization of space. Hooda Government also Approved the extension of Delhi metro from
mundka to bahadurgarh.
Many global giants are coming in Gurgaon (Grogram). Perhaps it has emerged as one of the top destination for foreign investment. The highest number of purchasing of car itself reflects the
prosperity in Haryana. Haryana progress was recognized on national level. Planning commission
reported growth rate of Haryana was as amongst the top two states. Haryana got huge amount of
fund from venter too. Haryana paid more than the collective tax collection by, Chandigarh,Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu Kashmir. Hooda came with the Image of man who changed
the quality of life in Haryana at least in terms of development of physical infrastructure.
Though this was the first time in Haryana the voters’ mind set has changed in terms of giving up anti-incumbency.
If we compare between Haryana and Bihar over the issue of corruption with the date of India
corruption study 2010. We find while in Bihar in 2005, 88.3 % people opined corruption has
increased the % came down to 44.5 in 2010. While in Haryana in 2005 ,78.1 % people believe
corruption has increased while in 2010 31.1 % people opined that corruption has increased. This
data shows both government bring transparency in to the system at some extent.
Social economic development -

The new economic policy has created an excess liquidity situation in the country so in both state
also. If we see the growth pattern of Bihar and Haryana, Bihar was growing at the lowest at the
peace in 2005 and now it is growing at the highest in India. (2.9 % to 10.9%) while Haryana has (8.4%
to 9.7%). Haryana’s 57 % population engaged in non-farm sectors of the economy while in Bihar 38%.
After 2005, most new jobs in Haryana were created in construction and services. On the other hand,
Bihar is becoming the place of second green revolution. Recently President of India states in a seminar that the first Bihar Krisi Roadmap was launched in 2008 and since then the state lad
tremendously increased up to 90 % per hectare yield in paddy since 76 % population of Bihar is still
depended on agriculture. (the tribune, Nov 2017)
If we compare Bihar of its report of NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY (NFHS-3, 2005-2006) and
NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY (NFHS-4, 2015-2016). we can see some trends of social change in
these states.
Rate of urbanization decreasing in Bihar there were 16 % are in urban areas in 2005 while in 2016
percentage has come down to 13 %. But in Haryana rate of urbanization is increasing infect Haryana
has witnessed large scale urbanization over decades from 33 % to 44.25 %.
Pro-woman policy making of Bihar reflects also in the data sex ratio has increased from 897
females per 1,000 males to 1,062 females per 1,000 males. While in Haryana that is very disgusting
figure. In opposition to the trend of Bihar, sex ratio of Haryana had declined from 897 girls per 1000
males to 876 girls per 1000 males. Female sex selective abortions, neglect of girl children are the
reason for this. Women literacy in both state has substantially increased. In Haryana 60.4 % to 75.4
%. Men literate has increased from 83. 45 to 90.0 %
IN Bihar Women literacy has increased from 37 % to 50 percent of women (age 15-49) and while
percentage of literate man has increased from 70 % to 78 percent. (of 15-49 age). we can see
gender disparity still exist in both societies. Only 12 percent of women age 15-49 in Bihar have
completed 12 or more years of schooling, compared with 26 percent of men.
Haryana is rich while Bihar is poor state. Haryana is on 8 position in Human development index
while Bihar is on 29.
In terms of child education, we see same type trend in both states have likewise same. In Bihar
percentage has increased from 56 % to 86 %. Government initiative affect the schooling of girl child.
In Haryana Women with 10 or more years of schooling has increased 29.6 % to 45.6 %. Television,
cinema, modern education and social changes has changed perception of society towards marriage
age. Men age 25-29 years married before age 21 years 23.9 % Now the percentage has gone to 33.7.

Uncontrolled population growth creates problem in terms of resource access. Bihar is the
worst state in terms of population control. fatality has also come down to 3.4 to 4.
Education plays a very significant role in terms of changing approach of woman towards sixe
of family. fertility vary with schooling woman with No schooling (4.1), 12 or more years
complete (2.2). while in Haryana Total fertility rate (children per woman) 2.1 which is came
down from 2.7.
Better health facility and Anganbari activities led decrease infant mortality rate (IMR) IN
Haryana from 42 to 33.
Currently married women who usually participate in household decisions have increased in
both states. Households using improved sanitation facility has gone up to 40.0% to 79.2 %.
Despite the micro and macro changes Serious malnutrition prevail, flood and food crisis are still
persisting in Bihar. fluctuations in agricultural output put it at risk with the orientation of development of non-farming sector both in Haryana an and Bihar.

Panchayat elections have revolutionized the political life of rural people and have brought about a silent revolution in rural Bihar in particular in India in general. Many sociological studies state that political experience of leadership pf woman becomes a great instrument of women empowerment which ultimately changes society into a just social order. The achievement of mass literacy and universal primary education require that school education be made compulsory by law, that governments make the investments necessary to provide school education to every child (and, in a more general sense, provide education for all); and that child labour be abolished.

Crime and social stratification -
Recently in Bihar shelter home gathered media attention after it was found that 40 girls mostly aged between 7 – 14 years were being raped and tortured within its walls. National crime Bureau (NCRB) data for 2016 has indicated that Haryana has acquired the top spot among all states in terms of gang
rapes. This is sign of brutality that women are facing in Haryana. Dalit women are the most oppressed within the oppressed groups so they happen to be the easier target.
Haryana politicians are more crude and less imaginative and more covetous. In Haryana, the state worst female sex ratio, female infanticide, female foeticide, Haryana tops in Honour killings, and has one of the highest incidents of rapes going unreported.
The category of caste has been used here to bring out the structural economic inequality that persist in the both societies. Role of khap in to produce and reproduce the social stratification in society is quite seen. Khap itself is an institution of Translation of conservative attitude and transmission of patriarchal values.
Intensive khap panchayat activity does not led to social change in society. it’s a parallel
government of state. The dichotomy between state and society makes unique social cultural environment in Haryana. 

Government of Bihar has quite liberal stand point towards inter caste marriage than in Haryana
where woman acts violently against inter-caste marriage. Across the state of Haryana young female and girls have liberal attitude than young boys and male. (Ravinder Kaur,2010). Uneducated make has tended to support more conservative values

Haryana has its own cultural, traditions, dances, songs memories, their language Is Neither Hindi AdsHindi belt elite has managed to impose Hindi as official language on them (but it is only official, not in popular culture) nor it is Punjabi as some Punjabi as some Punjabi as some Punjabis wrongly assumes. Bihar has basically three cultural ethnicities but Maithili is distinct but all differentiation from within gone when we identified Bihari in one social category.

Why revivalization movement does not takes place in Bihar? Does Bihar practise Brahminical hegemony so it gets detach from the Buddhism and Jainism in past. why conversation rate is less in
Buddhism lesser than other religion? these questions reflect the very orientation of Bihar society which is very much static and rigid or rather reproduction of social inequality. 

Economic variables -
Both Haryana and Bihar witnessed high degree of farmer stress due to agricultural states. 81 per cent of its income (Haryana) sourced from industry and service sector. neo-liberal model of development leads uneven growth.
Programme such as Mahatma Gandhi NREGA did great job at least in terms of two sphere at the one hand it at some extent decrease the migration of labour at the another hand it increases the purchasing capacity among the rural population.
Why the green revolution did take place in Bihar as in Haryana is matter of sociological study I think
Haryana exhibited some features of capitalism in 1970 while in Bihar pre-capitalist feature of doing agriculture was so natural. The character of economic structure of rural Bihar is predominantly semi-feudal. Apart from Prasad, scholars like Jha (1991), Prasad (1974), Das (1982)
consequences of such a policy -
inter-state Migration causes growth challenges in Bihar. Since The state has the lowest rate of female labour force participation in the country. Shortage of labourers become a very worried issues. 

Though some studies find MANREGA programmes helped to get job for rural population but corruption in MANREGA gave no choice to the labourers but to migrate to city or in other state to find job in non-formal sector. 1.75 crore people migrated from Bihar to other state (I G C Bihar conference 2015). The tragedy of the progress of development is that of uneven growth which is also in the case of Haryana. Nsso data suggest that not more jobs are created in spite of high growth rate.
Mehta argues that the poor in the urban informal sector are worse off than the rural poor in three respects: (1) they do not get wages in kind and, therefore, do not get automatically compensated for the price rise; (2) they are mostly migrants from rural areas and lack the kinship network when a contingency arises; (3) they incur obligatory miscellaneous expenses which could be avoided in rural
areas (Mehta 1994)
Migration has some many positive consequences also, social change and economic progress also come from this process. 29 per cent of income by remittance in Bihar.
Sociological studies tell us that When Bihari migrants go to state such as Haryana and Punjab. they are treated with respect. Increasing rate of public investment in agriculture and social sectors has had some significant effect on the society of both state.
58 per cent binaries are below the age of 25 giving highest proportion of young people in any Indian state. so Bihar has huge labour force in India.

* Development of Banking system in the span of 10 years
NABARD act of 1981 was acted for financial inclusion. Since Banking facilities is the worst in Bihar .people always suffered from the high interest loan from informal sectors. Only 44.4 per cent people able to use banking facilities while this data for whole country is 58.7. (2001 census) Informal sources land money on very high interest rates. A result, instead of coming out of it people fall in dept. trap. Nitish increased the pace of bank facilities in Bihar in order to reach the goal of financial inclusion. Pull them out of the clutches of informal sources. People haven’t been showing that enthusiasm to link themselves to bank. One of the reasons people are still unaware of the facilities banks provide
In their view, associating with banks only means opining a saving account
Some development in taking place in mission mode which become like oxygen for suffered people.
Migration has been one of the major constituents that led to change in rural Bihar, but economicand social transformation remained slow. Lack the entrepreneurship culture and geographical location, flood, and drought are variables which led people to be migrated from their home.

 Some progressive measures that has taken by government of Bihar
Recently Nitish Kumar campaigned to end dowry and child marriage, good implementation of reservation of women in panchayat Raj election. government help to increase inter-caste marriage and prohibition of alcoholism, Social audit of panchayat, these initiative destroy the structural constraints of Bihar and transform state itself as a tool of social change.

NHFC Data proves alcohol use related to spousal physical or sexual violence
Percentage of ever-married women experiencing violence
Husband does not drink – 32 %
Husband gets drunk sometimes 64%
Husband gets drunk often 83 % (NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY 4)

 Some progressive measures that has taken by government of Haryana
In order to End female foeticide, the state government had announced a scheme to offer Rest 1 lakh as reward for reporting violations of PCPNDT a& MIP Acts. Haryana has had the dubious record of being the worst among states in sex ratio with just 879 females per 1000 males. only in 2015 for the first time in 10 years, the sex ratio in Haryana shown an upward trend, crossing the 900- mark with 903 girls per 1000 boys (Hindu, January 16 ,2016). Beti Bachao aur Bati padho has to become a social movement not just merely slogan 

Contemporary scenario -
Drastic turn of politics of Bihar is after 2014 election Lok Sabha. Nitish had some ego -clash with Modi. Being an ambitious person he was looking alternative way to be prime minister.

 Elections in 2014, He owned moral responsibility for the poor performance of his party (JDU) in the national elections. His party had broken off its longstanding alliance with the BJP over the choice of Mr. Modi as the candidate for PM.
RJD gave unconditional support and saved Kumar government. That was the first time when two opposite leader came together.
JDU-RJD-Congress, communist alliances defeated NDA even the height of Modi wave. That was the political juncture of Bihar in particular and India in general. one more unpredictable incident took place when Nitish Kumar quit as Bihar CM and broke alliance. This happened after the days of political turmoil under the shadow of corruption charges against Lalu and his family. 

Such incidents show the detonation of political credibility. Ideology and commitment are no more
important than that of personal interests and lust of power particularly in Bihar. 

In the case of Haryana -
With the impact of Bjp victory of 2014, political help of religious cults and media management led Bjp to win 46 seats and form government in Haryana. saffron politics decreased the intensity the caste-based political contradiction in Haryana for a point of time. But jat agitation of 2017 shows
caste politics is still the most powerful tools of political mobilization in Haryana.
Recently survey of media shows that people are cursing themselves for electing such imbeciles to govern the state. RTI reports revel that government wasting crores of public money on ads. Political columnist said that this government has no idea how a state is governed beyond Gau rakshasa and Pooja. 

Recently Khattar government issues dikat for teachers to undergo priest training ahead of afair in Yamuna Nagar which is the reflection of how scientific temperament is being killed in institutions. on the question of woman safety government has failed too.

Recently opposition party said that Haryana has become ‘crime hub’ under khattar government. Corruption in every level of governance, failure of law and order issues are becoming more and more Observable. Media, civil society and people have started to question to government.
with the rise of social media and politicization of issues current regime has started facing problems.
Government Is trying best to divert attention of the common masses become the strategy. Since right wings government is expert in this political strategy. Rss ideology in policy making can been seen easily. Growing disharmony in state and communalism are matter of danger. More attention to cow protection than women is to be seen as the practice of irrationality of government policy
making. Whenever rape took place Haryana minister blame dress code or western culture.
Dishonesty of the regime of Bihar and irrationality and crime of Haryana government show the undemocratic ethics of government which needs to be criticised and opposed democratically.

* I interviewed a person who just finished his B. Tech from MDU Rohtak university. He is 23-year-old
jat. He cast his vote 8 times. He is from Rohtak. He talked about how INLD worker worked like
Gunddas. People realised to change. Congress was the result of dissatisfaction of INLD result. Law and order situation and jobs are the important issues that he feels as a voter to cast his vote. He told me how criminal killed when Hooda came into power, Lila was according to him the most dangerous criminal also killed. He thinks agrarian crisis is in his village. He told me about the incident when Dalits were beaten by his villagers. During conversation with him I felt he is conditioned by khap mind-set.
.

Conclusion –

 once A. Sen draws a distinction between economic growth and development. That is development does not necessarily follow high GDP. Though the word “development” loses its real
meaning because it creates social disparity. We started the paper with the question of socio-economic variables of change of Haryana and Bihar. We can all agree that it is a good thing that development was not the only issues in the election campaign but ideology and socio-cultural
uniqueness as well. whatever may be our ideal model of development. we should wait for some time wait to see the new dynamics of society to play at any point of time. Aspiration and expectation of middle class are increasing day by day but that has to be negotiate between state and society here political leadership comes into the picture.
However, whether from the point of view of overall welfare or from the point of view of future electoral success of a government elected on a development agenda, the growth process will have to be inclusive and must lead to sustained and substantive improvements in the standard of living of the subaltern sections of society. The experience of Haryana or Bihar, or that of India’s overall growth process in the recent past suggests that this will not happen systematically some time unpredictability of voters and regime have to play the uncommon and unpredictable role.

References
 NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY- In the survey of Bihar Households selected - 36,959
Households interviewed- 36,772 –Household response rate 99 %
 Bhagwat, Jadish N. 1993. India in Transition: Freeing the Economy. New Delhi, India:
Oxford University Press.
 Roy, Indrajit. 2014 IGC Bihar Growth Conference. Patna, India
 Kaur, Ravinder, 2010.khap panchayat, sex Ration and female agency. new Delhi.
Economic and political weekly (45(23);14-16.
 M. Ghatak and S. Roy, march 23 ,2014 “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, which is the Most
Dynamic State of Them All?” Ideas for India, also published in The Outlook, March 31.
 P R S Legislative Research, March 13, 2018, Haryana Budget Analysis 2018-19
 National Crime Records Bureau.2016 Crime in India, New Delhi
 Public Affairs Index ,2017. Governance in the States of India - Bangalore