I. The Unfinished State
Few regions illustrate India's contradictions more starkly than Bihar. This is the land that gave humanity the wisdom of Buddha, the governance of Ashoka, and the intellect of Nalanda, yet it continues to languish at the bottom of almost every national index. With a population of over 13 crore, Bihar accounts for nearly 11 percent of India's people but contributes barely 3 percent to the national GDP.
Despite impressive GSDP growth averaging 8.9 percent between 2015 and 2023, Bihar remains India's poorest major state. Its per-capita income, around ₹62,000, is roughly one-third of the national average, and nearly one in three residents continues to live below the poverty line. The World Bank estimates that Bihar alone houses more poor people than the 25 poorest African nations combined.
This is not a story of inadequate resources or poor geography. It is a story of misgovernance, moral corrosion, and the absence of collective will. Bihar's underdevelopment is not accidental. It is the direct consequence of structural failures in politics, administration, and social accountability.
II. The Political Economy of Decline
Bihar's economy presents a paradox of growth without transformation. Agriculture still employs more than 70 percent of its workforce but contributes only 23 percent to the state's GDP. Industry accounts for a negligible 9 percent, and the state attracts less than one percent of India's foreign direct investment.
According to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report of 2024, capital expenditure hovers around 11 percent of total outlay, and several departments return between 20 and 35 percent of funds unutilised each year. Infrastructure projects suffer average delays of two and a half years and cost overruns exceeding 35 percent.
The economy survives primarily on consumption, government expenditure, and construction, not on production or innovation. Migration functions as Bihar's informal employment policy. More than 85 lakh workers leave the state annually to work elsewhere, sending home remittances that sustain local consumption but create no sustainable production base.
III. Corruption as the Shadow State
Corruption has become the invisible constitution of Bihar. It governs how resources flow, how contracts are awarded, and how administration operates. Transparency International India's 2023 survey placed Bihar among the three most corrupt states in the country.
Leakages in welfare schemes, inflated project costs, and collusive contracting have become systemic. In the National Health Mission audit, the CAG found over ₹1,600 crore unaccounted across districts. In many primary schools, mid-day meal expenditures exist only on paper. The result is not only financial loss but a moral breakdown.
When corruption becomes a social norm rather than a stigma, merit dies and mediocrity thrives. Teachers avoid classrooms, engineers inflate estimates, and bureaucrats function through patronage networks. Bihar's governance has thus transformed into a transactional enterprise rather than a public mission.
IV. Caste Politics and the Collapse of Meritocracy
Bihar's greatest political transformation after the Mandal movement was meant to democratise power. Over time, however, it devolved into caste-centric mobilisation that fractured the social contract. Political legitimacy became dependent on identity arithmetic rather than performance.
In this environment, leadership selection is not based on competence but caste alignment. Administrative appointments, welfare targeting, and even public contracts are influenced by political patronage. Development became secondary to caste loyalty.
The politics of identity, once intended to correct historical injustices, has now hardened into a politics of entitlement and exclusion. Without a deliberate shift from caste appeasement to performance governance, Bihar cannot modernise its administration or economy.
V. The Criminalisation of Political Leadership
The quality of political leadership defines the destiny of governance. In Bihar, that quality has eroded alarmingly. According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, nearly 60 percent of legislators in the 2020 Assembly elections declared criminal cases, and about 40 percent faced serious charges including corruption, assault, and extortion.
This nexus between politics and criminality has institutionalised a culture of coercion and fear. Capable officers seek central postings, while the state machinery is left to those who survive by compromise. Policy is dictated not by long-term vision but by electoral survival. Bihar's governance thus remains a theatre of short-term populism, not structural reform.
VI. Bureaucratic Paralysis and Administrative Decay
Bihar's bureaucracy mirrors its politics. Frequent transfers, political interference, and lack of performance metrics have created a culture of administrative stagnation. The NITI Aayog's Good Governance Index (2023) ranked Bihar last among 18 large states in administrative efficiency, rule of law, and infrastructure delivery.
Vacancies in the state civil services exceed 28 percent. Many departments operate with outdated procedures and poor digital integration. Governance has become process-driven rather than result-driven. The state measures activity instead of achievement, and announcements substitute for outcomes.
VII. A Society That No Longer Demands
The deepest tragedy of Bihar is the silence of its own citizens. Development requires not just effective governments but vigilant societies. Bihar lacks that civic vigilance.
Centuries of caste division and dependency politics have eroded collective conscience. Civil society remains weak, academia disengaged, and local media often compromised by political patronage. Unlike in Kerala or Gujarat, where citizens actively monitor governance and mobilise for accountability, Bihar's civic structures seldom demand results.
A society that stops expecting excellence soon normalises mediocrity. The absence of civic pressure has allowed both corruption and incompetence to become part of everyday life.
VIII. Human Capital in Crisis
The governance deficit directly translates into human deprivation. Bihar's literacy rate is 71 percent compared with the national average of 77.7 percent. Female literacy stands at 61 percent, and the dropout rate between classes 9 and 10 is the highest in India at 32 percent.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 showed that 56 percent of Class 5 students in rural Bihar cannot read a Class 2 text. In higher education, the gross enrolment ratio is just 17.5 percent against the national average of 27.4 percent, with faculty vacancies exceeding 45 percent.
Health indicators tell the same story. The infant mortality rate is 38 per thousand live births compared with the national 28. Stunting among children is 42 percent, and anemia among women is 63 percent. Such statistics reveal not merely economic failure but the steady wasting of human potential.
IX. Infrastructure and Environmental Fragility
Bihar's geography magnifies its governance weakness. Over 70 percent of North Bihar is flood-prone, affecting an estimated 76 lakh people every year. The World Bank's 2024 South Asia Risk Assessment estimated annual losses equivalent to 2.3 percent of Bihar's GDP due to floods.
Basic infrastructure remains fragile. Electricity availability per capita is 40 percent of the national average. Rural internet penetration is under 35 percent. Road density is among the lowest in India, and urban planning is almost absent outside Patna. The absence of climate-resilient and sustainable infrastructure prevents Bihar from attracting modern industry or tourism.
X. Migration and the Hollowing of Society
Bihar's greatest export is its people. Millions of young men migrate each year to Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, and the Gulf countries in search of work. Their remittances, amounting to nearly ₹65,000 crore annually, sustain the state's consumption but drain its future.
Migration is not only an economic reality but a social tragedy. Villages depend on absent sons, families disintegrate under distance, and the state loses its most capable human resource. Bihar's development paradox is that its progress is financed by its own exodus.
XI. Pathways to Renewal
The regeneration of Bihar requires not schemes but systems, not slogans but structures. The reforms needed are comprehensive, simultaneous, and sustained.
1. Integrity First:
Establish a State Integrity and Accountability Commission with independent powers to investigate corruption in public contracts and welfare schemes. Link promotions and appointments to transparent performance audits. Mandate e-procurement and open data across all departments.
2. Political Leadership Reform:
Parties must decriminalise their candidate selection process. Electoral rules should bar candidates with serious criminal charges. Introduce multi-party Governance Charters that guarantee policy continuity in core sectors for at least ten years.
3. Civic and Media Empowerment:
Rebuild Bihar's civic conscience through citizen report cards, mandatory social audits, and district-level transparency dashboards. Encourage universities and think tanks to conduct annual governance assessments. Support independent regional journalism to act as a check on political power.
4. Human Capital Mission 2030:
Achieve universal functional literacy and skill certification for at least two lakh youth every year. Integrate vocational training with local industry clusters such as agro-processing, logistics, textiles, and renewable energy.
5. Resilient Infrastructure Strategy:
Incorporate climate adaptation in all future public works. Flood-proof roads and settlements, modernise embankments, and develop elevated industrial zones in vulnerable regions. Expand renewable energy micro-grids to provide reliable power for rural enterprises.
6. Administrative Modernisation:
Digitise 80 percent of land, service, and welfare records by 2027. Establish a Project Delivery Authority with executive autonomy to ensure timely completion of public projects and reduce cost overruns.
XII. The Moral Imperative
Bihar's crisis is not only administrative or political. It is moral and civilisational. A society that once gave the world Buddha's ethics, Ashoka's governance, and Chanakya's statecraft has allowed corruption, casteism, and complacency to take root.
True transformation will begin only when the people of Bihar reclaim integrity as their core value. Citizens must reject the politics of identity and criminality and demand governance built on merit, transparency, and accountability.
India cannot aspire to global leadership while one of its largest states remains trapped in mediocrity. Reclaiming Bihar is not merely a regional need but a national responsibility. The moral strength of a republic is measured by how it uplifts its weakest regions.
Bihar's soil has not forgotten its legacy. It awaits leaders of courage, administrators of integrity, and citizens of conviction. When Bihar demands integrity and rewards excellence, it will once again become the heart of India's intellectual and moral resurgence.
Only when Bihar rises will India's rise be complete.
[Major General Dr. Dilawar Singh, IAV, is a distinguished strategist having held senior positions in technology, defence, and corporate governance. He serves on global boards and advises on leadership, emerging technologies, and strategic affairs, with a focus on aligning India's interests in the evolving global technological order.]
