This year is going to be one full of surprises. The first news story that I read almost gave me a heart attack.

Statistics don't fill the stomach

This year is going to be one full of surprises. The first news story that I read almost gave me a heart attack.

The news was that Bihar is second only to Gujarat when it comes to economic growth u2014 and that too by a mere 0.2 per cent. I could not believe it.

For me, this piece of information came as the biggest shocker in the last decade. A state, which was plagued by poverty, illiteracy, foodgrain shortage, floods, and gundaraj, is suddenly improving, and improving drastically at that.

Many attributed this growth to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Many newspapers even said that it is good governance that has led to the development. There is no reason for me to doubt the reports, but then, strangely, the next paragraph mentions that even states like UP and Orissa are doing well. This was something unbelievable.
u00a0
Most backward states still lack basic amenities, but theu00a0 GDP the government claims is growing
This data is supposed to be of the last five years. However, hardly six months ago, I read in a magazine that villagers in Orissa still depend on the mango kernel to feed themselves. Meanwhile, UP Chief Minister Mayawati is busy making her idols, renaming districts and even decorating parks with huge stone elephants.

Most of the villages in these states do not have well-connecting roads, no water supply, no proper sanitation or jobs, but the economy they claim is still growing. I wonder who is reaping the fruits.

The growth factors in these states are invisible to the common man. If the economy is growing, why are people from UP and Bihar still forced to leave their land and come to Mumbai in search of jobs? Why does the MNS still claim that north Indians are clogging Mumbai? If the governance in these states is that good, where have the jobs vanished?

My native town is in Uttar Pradesh and even today, I have to travel for at least one hour on kaccha roads to reach my family home. In the last one year itself, I have seen kids die of diseases like pneumonia and high fever in my native town. Even now, malnourishment among children is regular. In the eastern states, kids are still sold for a few hundred rupees. People still migrate to metros and settle for a monthly salary of Rs 2,000 or even lesser.

I'm not doubting Kumar's ability to govern, but what matters to the common man,u00a0 is bread and butter and not the figures. Meanwhile, I still don't know where Maharashtra stands vis-u00e0-vis GDP growth. Does anyone know?

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