Human Development in Uttar Pradesh: Politics and Policies

Public policies for human development in India are politically contested for many reasons like diverse political interests and commitment to specific social bases by political regimes. These aspects have rendered human development policies and programmes ploys for political bargaining and building support base. There has been an ongoing and implicit bargaining between the political regimes in power and their social bases which is reflected prominently in human development-related policies, schemes and programmes. This paper attempts to illustrate this viewpoint, taking the case of Uttar Pradesh by analyzing the basis and priorities of two political regimes in power, i.e., Samajvadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.