Samikhsya Bureau
There is a general perception that Odisha is a poor state. The perception has been created by politicians who keep saying it whenever they visit the state. On March 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too reiterated about Odisha’s poverty at a rally in Jeypore.
No doubt, Odisha is counted among the backward states in the country and there have been several reasons for it. But it is also a fact that the state has improved in the per capita net income at a faster pace than many other states in India.
In the past, all states except Bihar had higher per capita net state domestic product than Odisha. But in the last two decades, Odisha moved upward edging past many other states, which used to have higher per capita net state domestic product than it.
According to Reserve Bank of India data, in 1999-2000, among all states, Odisha was at the bottom of the ladder with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh below it. Bihar’s per capita income was 54 per cent and Uttar Pradesh 92 per cent of that of Odisha.
By 2003-04, Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar. Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh were at levels below Odisha, which also edged past Madhya Pradesh. By 2006-2007, Assam and Manipur too went below Odisha.
In 2013-14, the list of states below Odisha also included Jammu and Kashmir. In 2016-17, the last year for which data is available for most states, Odisha edged past another three states West Bengal, Nagaland and Meghalaya.
That means while only two states were below Odisha in term of per capita state domestic product two decades back, now there are at least 10 states below it. The incomes of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as per 2016-17 data are now 41 per cent and 61 per cent of that of Odisha.
Odisha has not only improved its ranking vis-a-vis other states, but also has reduced the gap with many states that have higher per capita net state domestic product ranking. For instance, in 1999-2000, the per capita net state domestic ranking of Punjab, which was at the top of the ladder, was 241 per cent of that of Odisha. In 2016-17, it has reduced to 166 per cent.
It is interesting to note that among the states that find themselves below Odisha are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party – Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam. The BJP shares power in Bihar with Janata Dal (United) while it ruled Madhya Pradesh for over 15 years before losing it to the Congress in 2018.
So the next time, the Prime Minister should think again to comment about Odisha’s poverty while targeting the Naveen Patnaik government because the states ruled by the BJP are even poorer.
(Photo credit- Sudarshan Pattnaik)
