• Recently, the Prime Minister used the BIMARU term in the context of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh states.

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• The ‘BIMARU’ acronym has been used to refer to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, to imply they have lagged in terms of economic growth, healthcare, and education.
• The term was used to highlight the backwardness, especially with regard to poor performance in demographic indicators and contribution to population explosion.
• These states had exceptionally high levels of mortality, morbidity, illiteracy, fertility, undernutrition, and social inequality and lagged behind in per capita income.
• It was coined by Ashish Bose in 1980 to pinpoint India’s demographic malady.
• Bose mainly argued that from a family planning and population control perspective, these four states, with their high population growth rates were likely to offset the gains made elsewhere in the country.
• BIMARU states accounted for 41 percent of India’s total population in 2001 and will account for 43.5 percent in 2026 which has political and economic implications.
• The national goal of reaching a “stabilising population”, meaning a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.1 was achieved recently.
  • However, these states lag far behind.