Breaking the Shackles of the Past
Why is Jharkhand such a paradox, so resource-rich and yet stuck in a poverty rut? The India Today State of the State report looks at the big picture and presents a roadmap for how the state can stage a turnaround
Majestic hills, wild waterfalls, verdant valleys, steeped in rich history and a rich, diverse tribal culture, the eastern state of Jharkhand is a paradox. It’s rich in natural resources, including forests, minerals, rivers, with abundant rainfall and fertile soil, yet the majority of its people live in abject poverty. Jharkhand has 40 per cent of India’s total mineral reserves but accounts for only 10 per cent of the country’s total mineral production in terms of value.
A second paradox is that the state (then part of Bihar) started industrialising and urbanising as early as 1907 when the Tatas set up a steel plant in Jamshedpur, and Dhanbad developed as the country’s coal capital (over a century ago). Yet, 110 years later, Jharkhand has one of the largest rural populations in the country. The urban population of 24 per cent (2011 census) is much below the national average (31 per cent).
The state presents a third paradox though it began as a mining and manufacturing hub, recent data shows that the biggest decline is in the manufacturing sector. The state does surprisingly better in services. The increase in the share of services has been at the expense of its share in manufacturing, the latter dropping from 34 per cent in 2004-05 to only 20 per cent in 2013-14. The share of services increased by 12 percentage points while the share of manufacturing declined by 14 percentage points.
A fourth paradox lies in Jharkhand being the country’s capital for coal, a mining hub for several minerals (mica, manganese and bauxite) and iron ore, with two of India’s largest steel plants—Tata Steel, the first private steel plant in Jamshedpur, and the largest public sector steel plant in Bokaro and yet languishing near the bottom among the 29 states on most Human Development Indices (HDI).
Why is Jharkhand such a paradox? Is there a way out of this
low-level equilibrium trap the state seems stuck in? To answer this conundrum, india today began the State of the State intelligence report. State of the State (SOTS) report With a firm belief that the future of India lies in its 29 states, india today’s annual State of the States survey has since 2003 emerged as the gold standard for analysing the performance of the provinces. The State of the State (SOTS) survey was the next logical step. We prepare an X-ray view of each state, a SWOT analysis, a microanalysis at the district level.
Cut to Jharkhand: 24 districts, 16 years, 9 categories of human development, each composed of a few key parameters. The SOTS report comprehensively tracks historical change and economic, social and human development in Jharkhand. Taking an out-of-the-box view of the state, the report analyses the state’s key categories based on continuous time-series comparative and reliable data available. (Consistent time-series data are available for 18 of the 24 states).
The SOTS Jharkhand report concludes with a big picture, a road map for the future of the state and a vision model laying out the top priorities that can turn around the state’s economy and provide it good governance by replicating some of its core strengths. These are what the SOTS investigation reveals and also some best practices from outside.
The findings are astonishing. It is a story full of surprises, unexpected results that challenge conventional wisdom. At one level, the narrative is one of paradoxes: potentially rich but