Uttarakhand is turning 25. Here’s what it can be proud of and what it needs to do now

Uttarakhand has the technology, funds, and administrative capacity to become the first zero-poverty state in India, thus fulfilling the first two Sustainable Development Goals.

A terraced paddy field in Kumaon, Uttarakhand. Only about 14 per cent of the state’s land is available for cultivation | Image for representation | Commons

How should Uttarakhand mark its silver jubilee next month?

It could announce an airport expansion, commencement of international flights, and new institutions for medicine, engineering, technical education, and management. It could produce coffee-table books about the state being the numero uno investment destination, wax eloquent about its alpine meadows, glens, and hill stations as ideal film-shooting destinations. It could highlight the six-lane highways to the NCR, road connectors, and ropeways to ease traffic flows to existing and new tourism spots.

It could proclaim to the world that the state’s budget has increased 26 times in twenty-five years — from Rs 38,000 crore in 2001–02 to Rs 1 lakh crore in the current fiscal — and that it is one of the few states to have doubled farmers’ incomes in the last five years. It could also highlight its growing visibility in literature, arts, films, sports, yoga, and wellness. And it could take credit for being a frontrunner in policy changes — ranging from the controversial and hastily enacted Uniform Civil Code to land legislation amendment, passage of bill that governs minority educational institutions, and legalising the production and utilisation of hemp.

While all this is eminently desirable and possible, as an ex-Secretary to the Industrial Development and IT Departments of the state during its formative years (2004–2007), I would not hesitate to claim my share of credit in transforming Uttarakhand from a largely agriculture-dependent state in 2000 to one where manufacturing and services now hold sway. This column, however, is devoted to my take as a former Rural Development, Horticulture, and Co-operation Secretary of Uttarakhand (2002–2004). I have argued at every available forum that in its Silver Jubilee year, the state should focus its primary attention on those at the bottom of the pyramid.

Today, Uttarakhand has the technology, funds, and administrative capacity to become the first zero-poverty state in India, thereby fulfilling the first two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And if we can establish a replicable template for other states to follow, we would contribute in no small measure to a Viksit Bharat, two decades before the centenary of our Independence.

From doubling farmers’ income to zero-poverty state 

Buttressed by the fact that Uttarakhand has actually managed to double farmers’ incomes between 2018 and 2023, it can also aspire to become the first zero-poverty state in the country. In fact, the overall poverty ratio is already less than 10 per cent — precisely 9.67 per cent as of 31 May this year. The district-wise breakup is even more revealing. Counterintuitive as it may seem, the hill districts have fared much better than the plains districts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar. The state average has been pulled down by Haridwar’s 16.2 per cent poverty rate, followed by 11.26 per cent in Udham Singh Nagar. Incidentally, Haridwar has the highest, and Udham Singh Nagar the third-highest, populations in the state at approximately 22 lakh and 16 lakh.

This implies that if the state concentrates its efforts on mapping vulnerable areas and populations in these districts, which also have a high percentage of Scheduled Caste and minority populations, it should be possible to introduce transformative changes in livelihoods, micro-enterprises, and skill-sets for employment in industrial zones. This could be complemented by drudgery-reduction tools and productivity-enhancement equipment in the state’s extensive agricultural tracts.

What is needed is a different kind of imagination: utilising allocations to strengthen infrastructure, shifting agriculture’s profile towards high-value crops, dairying, pisciculture, bee-keeping, and near-farm value addition for markets within a 25 km radius. A leasing policy for tractors and light commercial vehicles, with matching assistance from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Finance Corporation of the state, could play an important role in minimising farm-to-market price asymmetry.

Millennials to the fore

The youngest entrants to the IAS and state civil services — most of whom are millennials — may be appointed as Joint/Special Magistrates in subdivisions, with a two-to-three-year mandate to ensure that every family receives the requisite assistance in terms of skills and financial resources to move up the ladder. The current emphasis on rural employment through MGNREGA should give way to skilling and livelihoods (NRLM). The silos of rural development, horticulture, agriculture, dairying, co-operation, and animal husbandry must converge at the ground level.

One individual from each household should be part of at least one intervention, with MGNREGA remaining a last resort — perhaps for another 18 months, after which the state should boldly declare that MGNREGA is no longer required. This transition will call for short-term additional help, which can come from paid young professionals and interns from institutions within the state, as well as from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in Gujarat, Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management (VAMNICOM) in Pune, National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM) in Jaipur, and National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) in Hyderabad.

The state’s agricultural universities — the Vir Chandra Singh Garhwali Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry at Bharsar, and the Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar — along with IIM Kashipur and the Management Studies Department of IIT Roorkee, could establish a knowledge consortium. Each postgraduate cohort could be tasked to present workable ideas to the concerned Block Development Officer.

Simple ground-level improvements — better connectivity infrastructure, agricultural markets with weighing and assaying machines, cold chains — hold the key to this transformation. NABARD’s state office could prepare a blueprint with clear timelines, ensuring that within two to three years Uttarakhand becomes the first zero-poverty state in the country. Needless to say, the DM, CDO, and Zilla Panchayat will need to approach this in Mission Mode, much like the Pulse Polio campaign and Swachh Bharat Mission.

Administrative accomplishment or political consensus

The achievement of zero-poverty status should, however, be more than just an administrative feat. Can this not be an occasion for bipartisan consensus, much like in October 2006, when the state Assembly unanimously adopted the Uttaranchal Alteration of Name Bill, followed by concurrence in Parliament on the Uttaranchal Change of Name Act in December that year? This paved the way for the adoption of the new name ‘Uttarakhand’ from 1 January 2007.

Here is an opportunity for Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to convene a meeting with Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan and Leader of the Opposition Yashpal Arya for a special session of the state Assembly. The session could present this vision, incorporate suggestions from Opposition legislators, and constitute a bipartisan Silver Jubilee Task Force. This body could work with NABARD and relevant state secretaries, reviewing progress at least twice a year for the next two years.

These four review meetings should be devoted exclusively to achieving the goal of Uttarakhand becoming the first zero-poverty state of the country. Such an achievement should be celebrated as belonging to the entire state, rather than a single political party — a good template for other states to follow on the path to Viksit Bharat.

Note: A slew of meetings, seminars, policy colloquia, book discussions, leadership and awards summits are being organised from this month in Uttarakhand to mark the formation of the state on 9 November 2000. Your columnist has been part of many of these interactions.

Sanjeev Chopra is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, PMML, New Delhi; a Trustee of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial; and Festival Director of Valley of Words, a literature and arts festival in Dehradun.

(Edited by Prashant)