BIMARU states

BIMARU (Hindiustani: बीमारू, بیمارو Bīmārū) is an acronym, coined by demographer Ashish Bose in mid-1980s, formed from the first letters of names of some of poorest Indian states, namely Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. BIMARU in Hindiustani, bīmār (बीमार, بیمار), denotes "sick" states referring to the poor economic conditions of these states. The acronym has also been used as a pejorative for the people originating from these states. BIMARU states are low on HDI & food security. The present-day states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were part of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, respectively, when the BIMARU acronym was coined. All of these are in the Hindi Belt, which also has relatively richer non-BIMARU states, such as Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand, after it was split from Uttar Pradesh and made a separate state, has made sufficient progress to get out of the BIMARU category. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are next in order for coming out of BIMARU group but they still have a lot to do. Chhattisgarh falls in the middle category of Human Development Index. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand are lagging behind. During 2008–2011, some of BIMARU states had higher growth rate and some of their natives argued that the BIMARU concept was outdated, but in reality these states have a low economic base and thus despite higher rate of growth they remain much poorer than other states. The concept has re-emerged due to the faltering growth rates of the states.

BIMARU states are usually negative net provider of the food security, i.e. they consume more food than they produce. Hence, these states are major consumer of India's PDS for food redistribution. Much smaller but richer states of Haryana & Punjab are the massive provider of food security to India as they provide 70-90% of wheat & 28-44% of rice of India's total PDS.