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THE ONGOING ELECTIONS in Uttar Pradesh have resurrected claims that caste politics un- dermines development. The BJP and its sup- porters in the commentariat argue that caste politics, as allegedly practised by opposition parties such as the BSP and the SP, led to the state's social and economic backwardness. But NFHS data on human development since 2004 suggests quite the opposite: UP fared as well as, if not better than, its neighbours among the BIMARU states.
Political instability has marred UP since India's independence in 1947. Although the Congress won decisive majorities in legislative assembly elections held in 1952, 1957 and 1962, no chief minister completed a full-term in the state. After 1967, political instability be- came even more acute, as power rotated be- tween the many parties that competed for dominance in the state without, however, managing to complete a full term. It was only as late as 2012 that Mayawati became the first chief minister to complete a full term in office.
With an eye on improving life for Dalits, BSP took development very seriously. Its in- clusive vision was outlined by the party's campaign slogan "sarvajan hitay, sarvajan sukhay", which in English translates into "may everyone benefit, may everyone be prosperous". Mayawati introduced and im- plemented a housing scheme for the urban poor. Of the 1,00,000 housing units promised, over 90,000 were constructed by the time her tenure as Chief Minister expired in 2012. She also inaugurated an integrated rural devel opment programme to supply water, elec tricity and roads in villages with Dalit majori ties. Almost 25,000 villages across the state sawimprovements within their jurisdictions, and even her worst critics admitted there had been some development compared to pre vious regimes. Even though the BSP govern ment was unable to introduce structural re forms that would transfer more productive assets to Dalits, its development programmes did reach populations that had hitherto been largely marginalised.
Learning from the experience of neigh bouring Bihar, the state government distrib uted one million bicycles to girls across the state in a bid to improve their access to school ingand general mobility. However, allegations of corruption overshadowed the developmen tal interventions introduced under her tenure and Mayawati was voted out of powerin 2012.
The new govermment, formed by the SP. borrowed a page from the BSP's success at forging social coalitions. It cemented its own Yadav-Muslim coalition that lay at the foun dation of the party's ideology with support from the "upper castes". Muslim representa tion in the UP Vidhan Sabha was at the high est since Independence and more closely re flected the community's population than ever before. Although Akhilesh Yadav scrapped many schemes introduced by Mayawati, he also introduced several new social welfare pro grammes, including housing subsidies, pen sions and unemployment allowances. Furthermore, he distributed 1.5 million lap tops to students who completed their second ary and senior secondaryeducation across the state. Perhaps, the highlight of Yadav's chief ministership was the successful eradication of polio in the state. By 2013, and undoubtedly building on the success of Mayawati's regime, the state had not reported a single case of po lio,a majormilestone in global health improve ment. The involvement of Muslims in the SP's social coalition helped to overcome worries from community members that the polio vac cine was aimed against them.
The human development outcomes of so cial coalitions that governed UP between 2007 and 2017 are clearly discernible. Several of these outcomes pertain directly to the effec tiveness of the state in delivering services. It is instructive to compare the National Family Health Surveys 3 and 4. NFHS-3 pertains to data collected in 2005-6,just a year before the BSP came to power in UP. NFHS-4 data per tains to the period 2015-6, or a year prior to the SP losing power in UP. Both sets of data offera useful insight into the changes in human de velopment in the state through the govern ments of the BSP and SP
Forexample, the proportion of childrenun derfive years whose births were registered in creased from a mere 7 per cent in 2005-6to over 60 per cent. Among its neighbours, only Riharhasa similartrack recond The nmnorti from6.6er cent in 2005-6 to over 44 per cent in 2015-6. Immunisation rates improved. Mortality rates were reduced.A larger propor- tion of women reported a follow-up visit from aparamedic after the delivery. Indicators of hu man development pertaining to women's sta tus registered an improvement. Women's liter acy rates increased to 61 per cent, the highest among the BIMARU states, except Chhattisgarh The proportion of women with at least 10years of education also increased, placing UP ahead of the other BIMARU states
Between 2005 and 2016, UP reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty by al most 28 percentage points, from 68.8 percent to40.8 per cent. Given the size of the state and its enormous social heterogeneity, this was no mean achievement. Not only did UPdecrease the incidence of multidimensional poverty during this period, it also reduced its intensity. Alongside Jharkhand, the state reported the lowest intensity of multidimensional poverty among the BIMARU states
