Ashish Bose: The man who coined BIMARU tried to make things simple

Associates say Bose always tried to make complex things simple and understandable

Finding out the essence is more important than getting lost in statistical jugglery” is what Ashish Bose, the country's foremost demographer, who passed away on Monday, once told Amitabh Kundu, his friend and professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Kundu’s description perhaps summarises the personality of Bose, best known for coining the term BIMARU (in a paper presented to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi) to refer to the four grossly under-developed states of (undivided) Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the 1980s; later, Odisha was also included, to expand it to BIMAROU. Bose’s contention was if the government wants to control population, it should stress on these states.

He died of protracted illness on Monday at his house in South Delhi's Chittaranjan Park. He was 84 and is survived by two sons. Not keeping well for some time, he was hospitalised last month after a fracture in his leg.

People close to him say Bose had this uncanny ability to simplify complex statistical data and make these understable to all. “This is perhaps the reason he coined BIMARU,” said a former colleague; the term comes from the Hindi word Bimar, meaning sick. These states showed all the characteristics of being sick — low per capita income, low health and social indicators compared to the national average and needing special attention.

Till the 1980s, Bose was actively involved in formulating urban demographic details but after the 80s, he shifted to empirical analysis and vision building.

After the much-hyped National Commission for Urbanisation was constituted on Rajiv Gandhi's instructions, Bose was the first to point out that it excluded Jammu and Kashmir, leading to much furore in policy circles.

Never one to mince words, Bose is known to have told Gandhi to forget what foreign expert models said about India’s falling social indicators and to only focus on the four BIMARU states. As Kundu recalls, he once told a gathering that Haryana had perhaps the lowest female workforce participation. Not that this was statistically absolutely correct but Bose meant as the state was far more developed than UP or Bihar, it should have more women in the workforce.

“This was particularly special of Bose, an ability to describe, people or data, in the easiest possible way,” said Kundu. Bose’s house in Chittaranjan Park was a home to many young students of urban statistics and demographics, with whom Bose liked to share his vast knowledge and experience.

Having headed the Population Research Centre at the Institute of Economic Growth here, he had written a little over 25 books on population and development. Some of the noted ones are Growing old in India: Voices Reveal, Statistics Speak and Darkness at Noon: Female Foeticide.