An Analysis of South 24 Parganas District in West Bengal, India
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Bulletin of Geography. Socio–economic Series / No. 36 (2017): 33–60 BULLETIN OF GEOGRAPHY. SOCIO–ECONOMIC SERIES DE journal homepages: http://www.bulletinofgeography.umk.pl/ http://wydawnictwoumk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/BGSS/index http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bog ISSN 1732–4254 quarterly G Development of Basic Infrastructure: An Analysis of South 24 Parganas District in West Bengal, India Emon BagchiCDFMR Magrahat College in West Bengal, Department of Geography, Magrahat, South 24 Parganas- 743355, West Bengal, India; phone: +91-9830226483; e-mail: [email protected] How to cite: Bagchi, E., 2017: Development of Basic Infrastructure: An Analysis of South 24 Parganas District in West Bengal, India. In: Cho- dkowska-Miszczuk, J. and Szymańska, D. editors, Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, No. 36, Toruń: Nicolaus Coperni- cus University, pp. 33–60. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bog-2017-0013 Abstract. Infrastructure provides the fundamental basis for socio-economic de- Article details: velopment of any country. It acts as the backbone of an economy. Regional dis- Received: 15 April 2015 parities in infrastructural development naturally result in uneven development. Revised: 27 September 2016 Infrastructural development has greater significance in less developed areas due to Accepted: 01 February 2017 their various inherent deficiencies and imbalances. With regard to this, status of the basic sectors of the infrastructure of South 24 Parganas district of West Ben- gal, India has been discussed in this article. This is a less developed area. Com- Key words: parative analysis on infrastructural achievements at sub-district level has also been infrastructure, made. The study not only points towards the lack of uniform infrastructural de- development, velopment over the entire region, but also towards a tendency for concentration connectivity, of such growth process in those areas of the district which lie in close proximity electrification, to the metropolis of Kolkata. regional disparity. © 2017 Nicolaus Copernicus University. All rights reserved. Contents: 1. Introduction . 34 2. Research materials and methods ......................................................... 36 3. Research results ........................................................................ 36 3.1. Agriculture ........................................................................ 36 3.2. Literacy and education.............................................................. 39 3.3. Healthcare system .................................................................. 41 3.4. Transport facilities ................................................................. 43 3.5. Electrification...................................................................... 45 3.6. Financial services .................................................................. 47 3.7. Household amenities ............................................................... 49 © 2017 Nicolaus Copernicus University. All rights reserved. © 2017 De Gruyter Open (on-line). 34 Emon Bagchi / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series / 36 (2017): 33–60 4. Discussion ............................................................................. 51 4.1. Methodology for computation of the infrastructural development index.................. 51 4.2. Profile of infrastructural development at sub-district level .............................. 54 5. Conclusion ............................................................................ 56 Acknowledgement ........................................................................ 57 References ............................................................................... 57 1. Introduction es of Economic Growth’, Rostow (1960) considered SOC as a precondition for take-off into self-sus- The role of infrastructure is of great importance tained growth. Later Aschauer (1990) defined in- in development process of any kind, as its short- frastructure as a region’s ‘public stock of social and age often becomes the major limiting factor for economic overhead capital’. The World Bank (1994), economic progress. This has become even more sig- in the World Development Report of 1994, included nificant under the globalised market regime, where the following as infrastructural services: increased productivity, wider connectivity, great- 1. Public Utilities: Power, telecommunications, er efficiency and competitiveness, to a large extent, piped water supply, sanitation and sewerage, sol- determine the viability of any economy. Infrastruc- id waste collection and disposal, piped gas, tural development assumes greater importance in 2. Public Works: Roads, major dams, canal works large developing countries, like India, struggling for irrigation and drainage, with illiteracy, mass poverty, unemployment, un- 3. Other Transport Sector: Urban and inter-urban deremployment, poor health condition and lower roadways, urban transport, ports, waterways and level of living. Large developing countries have em- airports, barked upon ambitious development programmes, 4. Social Infrastructure: Basic education, primary which have raised their demand for infrastructure. health and banking services. Moreover, numerous studies conducted in these Evidence from many countries of the Third countries point out that, regional disparities in so- World shows that in case of the provisioning of cio-economic development, to a large extent, result infrastructure explicit dispersal policies that were from uneven development of infrastructure. Several meant to support a smaller urban centre were of- economists attempted to theorise the nature of link- ten undermined by spatial biases in macro-econom- age between infrastructure and development (e.g. ic and sectoral policies, including trade, industrial Rosenstein-Rodan, 1943; Nurkse, 1953; Hirschman, and agricultural policies. Discussing the econom- 1958; Rostow, 1960 and others). ic growth and urbanisation of Sub-Saharan Afri- Infrastructure as a term means something that ca, Tiffen (2007) considered that public investment lies below or comes before the ‘structure’. It is the in basic infrastructure, like electricity, piped water, base upon which the superstructure is built. Thus, telecommunications, to a greater number of towns in economic discussion all those activities and ser- may become more effective than direct state invest- vices which contribute to the economy not only ment in manufacture. Studies on spatial planning by generating income within the sector itself, but strategies in Indonesia show that access to region- also by providing sustenance and support to in- al and national urban networks increases the mar- come generation in the rest of the economy can ket potential of a village. Such linkage development be considered as ‘infrastructure’ (Majumdar 2008). also provides rural households with alternative in- The first reference to the concept of infrastructure come generating opportunities (Douglas, 2007). was made by Hirschman (1958). Social Overhead In overpopulated, labour-surplus countries like In- Capital (SOC), according to him, comprises ‘those dia, the creation of infrastructural facilities increas- basic services without which primary, secondary es the scope of gainful employment on the one and tertiary productive activities cannot function’ hand and these facilities open up avenues for eco- (Hirschman, 1958). SOC can thus be identified as nomic growth and development on the other (Ma- infrastructure. In his famous theory on ‘The Stag- jumdar, 2008). Emon Bagchi / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series / 36 (2017): 33–60 35 In this context, an attempt has been made to one of the backward districts of the state. Thus, de- trace the nature of infrastructural development of velopment of basic infrastructure deserves special South 24 Parganas district of the state of West Ben- attention to raise the level of overall socio-econom- gal in India. It is the southernmost district of the ic development. The status of seven broad sectors state occupying the southern part of the Bengal Del- of infrastructure has been discussed. These are ag- ta (Fig. 1). The district lies between 21°29’0” north ricultural infrastructure, educational infrastructure, and 22°33’45” north latitudes and between 88°3’45” healthcare system, transport infrastructure, financial east and 89°4’50” east longitudes. In spite of being services, electrification and household amenities in- an adjoining district of the Kolkata Metropolis, it is cluding drinking water and sanitation facility. Fig. 1. Location map of South 24 Parganas District in West Bengal, India Source: Census of India, 2011 36 Emon Bagchi / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series / 36 (2017): 33–60 Objectives of the study - The article focuses on district presently has twenty nine Community De- three basic objectives as outlined below. velopment Blocks (C. D. Block). These blocks have 1. To discuss the achievement of the district in se- been treated as micro level units for this study. Data lected sectors of infrastructure and to analyse the have been collected from various sources, like the major disadvantages and problems of the con- Census of India; the Bureau of Applied Economics cerned sector. and Statistics, Government of West Bengal; the East- 2. To emphasise the study of the performances of ern Railways, Indian Railways; the Lead Bank Of- the C. D. Blocks and to construct index of infra- fice, Baruipur Subdivision, South 24 Parganas, etc. structural development for each