West Bengal’s progressive economic decline since the ’60s is known, even though myopic memory means people don’t always remember how bad it has been. The big picture is the growth story. During the Eighth (1992-96) and Ninth (1997-2001) Plans, the state didn’t perform that badly. But there were three problems. First, growth was driven by agriculture, not industry or services. Second, growth failed to take off during the Tenth Plan (2002-06), which is when many states broke into the 9 per cent-plus league. Third, agricultural growth is rain-fed, small-farmer-led and based on low-productivity, and that too began to plateau from around 1995-96.

It is easy to blame population growth, including immigration. However, other populous states have managed population better. Maharashtra is an instance. One figure tells it all. Workers employed in manufacturing is 3.1 million in West Bengal. Gujarat has 1.5 million. The difference is that West Bengal’s manufacturing employment, unlike Gujarat’s, is predominantly rural, own-account and unorganised. Sickness in SSI (small-scale industry) is higher than the all-India average. Whether West Bengal’s land reform and decentralisation strategy brought substantial economic empowerment is debatable. However, it did bring social empowerment. That social empowerment tapered off because a second round of tenants were kept dangling without rights. This was a future carrot used to ensure they continued to vote for the Left Front.

Meanwhile, growth flagged in all three sectors — primary, secondary and tertiary. Among the educated youth (15-29 years), West Bengal’s unemployment rate is the highest in India. The backlog of those registered with employment exchanges is 7.72 million. In 2006, the last year for which we have data, 497,000 registered with employment exchanges and 15,100 obtained jobs. There is a problem both with availability of employment and its quality. And there are considerable intra-state disparities. Depending on indicators, districts like Bankura, Birbhum, Dakshin Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Koch Behar, Maldah, Medinipur, Purulia and Uttar Dinajpur are worse than India’s perceived badlands. Equity concerns should mean elimination of these disparities. Not only has that failed, there has been an inability to subsidise the poor, such as through BPL (below the poverty line) or AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana) cards. 2004-05 the NSS (National Sample Survey) data show 47.3 per cent of West Bengal’s poor have neither of these cards and 43.3 per cent of non-poor have BPL or AAY cards. A facilitating business environment doesn’t exist and this goes beyond man-days lost to industrial disputes, strikes or lockouts. In the World Bank’s sub-national rankings on ease of doing business, Kolkata is behind Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Patna and Ranchi.

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