DISTRICT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT NORTH 24 PARGANAS DEVELOPMENT & PLANNING DEPARTMENT GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL District Human Development Report: North 24 Parganas © Development and Planning Department Government of West Bengal First Published February, 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission from the Publisher. Front Cover Photograph: Women of SGSY group at work. Back Cover Photograph: Royal Bengal Tiger of the Sunderban. Published by : HDRCC Development & Planning Department Government of West Bengal Setting and Design By: Saraswaty Press Ltd. (Government of West Bengal Enterprise) 11 B.T. Road, Kolkata 700056 Printed by: Saraswaty Press Ltd. (Government of West Bengal Enterprise) 11 B.T. Road, Kolkata 700056 While every care has been taken to reproduce the accurate date, oversights/errors may occur. If found, please convey it to the Development and Planning Department, Government of West Bengal. Minister-in-Charge Department of Commerce & Industries, Industrial Reconstruction, Public Enterprises and Development & Planning GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL E-mail : [email protected] Foreword It has been generally accepted since ancient times that welfare and well being of human is the ultimate goal of Human Development. An environment has to be created so that the people, who are at the centre of the churning process, are able to lead healthy and creative lives. With the publication of the West Bengal Human Development Report in 2004 and it being subsequently awarded by the UNDP for its dispassionate quality of analysis and richness in contents, we had to strive really hard to prepare the District Human Development Reports. So far we have been able to publish DHDRs for Bankura, Malda, Birbhum and South 24 Parganas. The DHDRs of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Hooghly, Nadia, Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar are under different stages of preparation. The DHDR of Bankura has received widespread appreciation for its innovation in measurement of Human Development Index (HDI). The DHDR of North 24 Parganas portrays the diverse features of this district and also depicts the multilayered development that has taken place, over the past five to six decades. Burgeoning urbanisation and very presence of the Sunderbans open up a rare opportunity to the policy makers and practitioners of development of further study the intrinsic nature of North 24 Parganas and find out new initiatives. Despite having the IT Hub of the Eastern Region located within its boundaries, it has a high rate of industrial disputes to settle. Rise in income and purchasing power in the ever-spreading urban areas is matched by acute distress in the rural areas (nearly 30% of rural households) and severe mal-nutrition in the slums. I avail this opportunity to thank the peoples’ representatives, the administrators, the academicians and all those who have contributed to the preparation of this document, including the eminent members of the State Planning Board and the officials of the Development and Planning Department. I am sure that their efforts will be rewarded in the long-run when the district will find its place of eminence in the arena of Human Development. Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata 700 001 z Ph : 2214 5919/3475 z Fax : 2214 4900 4, Abanindranath Tagore Sarani (Camac Street), 6th floor, Kolkata 700 016 z Ph. : 2282 0770/2282 0771 z Fax : 2282 0769 Poura Bhawan, FD-415A, Bidhannagar, 5th floor, Kolkata 700 106 Ph. : 2321 1113 z Fax : 2321 1827 Preface Right now we are in a bind. While the smart flaunting of the mobile phone by the neighborhood Rickshaw puller presently is being construed as the loadstar of development, statistics reveal the side by side existence of a huge majority surviving in an abyss of poverty and sub-human condition. The perception of development indicator thus varies leading to somewhat blurred image of a particular area or district. A District Human Development Report does not attempt to plan a road between this proverbial Scylla and Charybdis. Rather it tries to depict the objective situation so that a roadmap to development can be arrived at. Basically, therefore, it is a tool to develop the strategy for ensuring equitable development. And for this, we remained constantly on guard to ensure the portrayal of the objective scenario of the district so that the resultant roadmap does not pirouette and fall face down. This report consists of eight chapters harnessing the entire urban-rural continuum of our district. The First Chapter ‘North 24 Parganas -Some Key Features’ deals with the basic features of the district, Second and Third Chapter ‘Rural North 24 Parganas - Key Features’, ‘Urban North 24 Parganas - Key Features’ describes the salient points of these two important socio-economic constructs. Fourth and Fifth Chapters elaborate on the livelihood patterns of rural and urban areas of the district. The all important Sixth and Seventh Chapters of the Report delineate the position of health system and the educational opportunities existing in the district along with their performance map. The Eighth chapter indicates the ‘Vulnerability’ of the population and the ‘coping mechanism’ generally adhered to. The district basking under the hue of rapid urbanization provide many a turn, albeit interesting, in different sectors. For instance, the average life expectancy among women in this district is quite high in comparison to other districts but at the same time social and criminal atrocities against women also registers higher incidence. These sorts of interesting juxtaposition of hard facts spell the real character of the district and covertly describe the difficult terrain we have to trudge in ensuring equitable development. In fact, to harness this total range of affairs of the district spread over different geographical regions, rural urban continuum and living status of people we had to engage ‘Org-Nielson’ to conduct a baseline survey of the district through a structured questionnaire on a sample size which was large enough to capture the diversity of the district and at the same time small enough to handle in a limited period of time. Apart from this we took help of other two tools ‘focused group discussion’ and ‘survey by expert’ to have a feel of the situation. The data provided in the book are drawn from departmental sources and the normal published secondary source. The Draft Report has been validated in two ‘stakeholders meeting’ and in a state level experts’ meeting. The feedbacks from these exercises were incorporated and the final draft was revalidated by the concerned district level departments. I put on record my sincere thanks to all who have been involved in the exercise. I am grateful to all the officers at the grass root level who have provided the data. I convey my sincerest thanks to the officers of the line departments including the departments of Land, Forest, Agriculture, Animal Resource Development, Fisheries, Agri-irrigation, Public Health Engineering, Khadi and Village industries, SSA, Education and allied departments, Health , Social Welfare, ICDS, Food and Supplies, Bureau of Applied Economics and Statistics, PRATHAM a NGO and the Lead District Manager Allahabad Bank. The District Rural Development Cell and the District Planning Office acted as the nodal offices in collating and arranging the data from different sources. I am also very thankful to Sabhadhipati of North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad and the Karmadhyakshyas of Zilla Parishad for their inputs and involvement in the entire process. A special ‘thank you’ goes to Superintendent of Police, North 24 Parganas, Project Director DRDC and Sub-Divisional Officer Bidhannagar for their unflinching support. I express my deep gratitude to Lead Coordinator Prof. Ratan Khasnabis Department of Business Management University Of Calcutta and his band of associates Smt Anusri Mahato, Smt Abira Roy of ‘Center for Studies in Economic Appraisal’ and Sri Arindam Bhattacharyya Barasat Govt. College, Deptt. of Economics for their undaunted devotion in writing the entire report in a very short time and against all odds. Really it was a classic situation of ‘When Time Ran Out’. Finally, I express my sincere thanks to the Development and Planning Department, Government of West Bengal, for their kind guidance and constant encouragement. March, 2009 Binod Kumar Barasat District Magistrate North 24 Parganas North 24 Parganas Contents Chapter Section Topic Page No. I Introduction 1–15 1.1 North 24 Parganas : Some Key Features 3 1.2 Population Density and Quality of Life 5 1.3 Occupational Pattern in the District 11 II Rural North 24 Parganas: Key features 17–33 2.1 Introduction 19 2.2 Population Density and Literacy in Rural North 24 Parganas 19 2.3 Livelihood Pattern in Rural North 24 Parganas 24 2.4 Basic Amenities in the Villages of North 24 Parganas 29 III Urban North 24 Parganas : Key Features 35–55 3.1 Introduction 37 3.2 Urban History of the District 37 3.3 Demography and Quality of Life in Urban North 24 Parganas 40 IV Livelihood Options in Rural North 24 Parganas 57–98 4.1 Introduction 59 4.2 Baseline Survey: Methodology 59 4.3 Livelihood Options in rural North 24 Parganas 62 4.4 Agriculture and Allied Agricultural Activities 66 4.5 Non-Agricultural Enterprises in Rural North 24 Parganas 80 4.6 Wage Employment 82 4.7 Self Help Groups in rural North 24 Parganas 83 V Livelihood Options in Urban North 24 Parganas 99–109 5.1 Introduction 101 5.2 Livelihood Options in urban North 24 Parganas 101 5.3 Employment in Organized Industries 102 5.4 Urban Enterprises in the District 106 5.5 Employment in Government Services 109 VI Healthcare Services in North 24 Parganas 111–147 6.1 Introduction 113 6.2 Healthcare Infrastructure in the District 113 6.3 State-run Medical Services: Organizational Setup and Logistics 118 6.4 Health Care System Loads in North 24 Parganas 121 6.5 Maternal and Child Health Related Issues 124 6.6 Diseases in the District 137 6.7 Status of Drinking Water and Sanitation 144 6.8 Arsenic Contamination 146 Chapter Section Topic Page No.