Districts Of West Bengal Research Articles

Disparity in income poverty and multidimensional poverty estimates: The Indian scenario with special reference to Salboni and Binpur‐I blocks

AbstractThere is no consensus among studies about how to define or measure poverty. Two widely used criteria to estimate poverty are the minimum expenditure criteria (income or monetary poverty) and the extent of deprivation regarding different dimensions representing quality of living of individuals (multidimensional poverty). This study compares income poverty and multidimensional poverty estimates across Indian states in recent years. Although both the poverty estimates indicate significant reduction in poverty, income and multidimensional poverty estimates differ significantly. Then the critical question is whether both measures identify the same set of households as poor or not. If alternate definitions of poverty identify different households as poor then we should be cautious about choosing the correct method to estimate poverty. In this context, we have studied the cases of two blocks, Salboni and Binpur I from Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal. Using our own data from these two blocks, we find that poverty incidence calculated using two different measures for Salboni and Binpur I blocks give significantly different estimates. Even though most of the multidimensional poor households were also identified as income poor, not all income poor households were identified as multidimensionally poor.

Pattern of hemoglobinopathy among the young tribes of West Bengal: A completely different scenario from Rest of India.

Hemoglobinopathy is a major concern among the tribal population which constitutes 8.6% of the total population, and West Bengal (WB) is the home to 5.3 million tribes. The present study was conducted on 52,880 tribal school students from all the districts of WB. Written informed consent and peripheral blood were collected for complete blood count and high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. Beta trait was 5.3%, sickle trait was 2.35%, and hemoglobin (Hb) E (HbE) trait was 1.4% in this population. About 37.8% of beta trait belonged to the Santal tribe and 21.5% belonged to Oraon. HbS is mainly found in Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts at the prevalence of 3.69% and 5.96%, respectively. HbE trait is found at 6.06% in Alipurduar, of which 51% of cases are from Mech tribe only found in this district. Unlike central and Western parts of India, HbS trait in WB was significantly low among the tribes. A high prevalence of consanguinity among the tribes is considered responsible for the high rate of hemoglobinopathy.

Attitude of rural students towards inclusive classroom at secondary level: A case of Burdwan District

Attitude of rural students at secondary level towards inclusive classroom is about appreciating differences and modifying the strict educational system to accommodate the requirements of all kind of students. Every child should have access to high-quality education as it is a fundamental human right. Children with special needs, regular school students, educators, and society everyone benefit from teaching-learning in inclusive classrooms. In the current study, the prime objective is to compare the attitude of rural students towards inclusive classroom at secondary level with respect to gender (male and female) and type of school (government and private). The investigators studied 94 samples from rural secondary school of Pandaveswar block of Burdwan district in West Bengal through self-made questionnaire of Shalini Gupta (2012) and also used Mean, SD, t-test, and analysis by SPSS-20.0 version for analyzing the collected data. The findings of the present study unfold that there is no significant difference between male (Mean=49.69) and female (Mean=50.34) and their remains significant difference between government and private rural secondary students’ attitude towards inclusive classroom of Burdwan district in West Bengal. On the other hand, out of 94 samples, 9.58% of students have extremely high and 39.36% of students have high level attitude towards of inclusive classroom. Similarly, 36.16% of students’ average and 12.77% of students have low and also only 2.13% of student have extremely low level attitude towards inclusive classroom of rural secondary school students of Burdwan district in West Bengal. So, it understood that private school teachers have better attitude towards inclusive classroom at secondary schools.

Assessment of infrastructure and status of biomedical waste management in primary health-care facilities in a district of West Bengal, India: A mixed method study

Assessment of infrastructure and status of biomedical waste management in primary health-care facilities in a district of West Bengal, India: A mixed method study

Impact Of Chronic Arsenic Toxicity on Human Health- A Review

The levels of heavy metals in ground water continue to be higher than those considered acceptable by regulatory agencies in different countries across the world. One of the most important public health problems in the world is chronic arsenic poisoning, or arsenicosis, caused by drinking water that has been poisoned with arsenic. Arsenic poisoning over time has been related to a number of cancers of the skin, oral cavity, urinary bladder, kidney, and lung in addition to bone marrow depression, Blackfoot disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and a host of other ailments. In addition, arsenic causes DNA damage that has genotoxic effects. Around the world, 137 million people in 70 different nations depend on drinking water that has been drawn from severely contaminated groundwater. The two nations that have been affected the most so far are Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. The drinking water of 26 million people in nine districts of West Bengal contains levels of arsenic that are significantly higher than the WHO-acceptable limit of 10 g/l. The review focuses on the impact of chronic arsenic toxicity on public health worldwide.

Prediction of Blood Pressure and Cholesterol By Machine Learning Technique

Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic particles called lipids [1]. High blood pressure along with high cholesterol are two of the main causes of heart disease. Heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular (blood vessel) diseases are among the primary cause of death. Approximately 10 million people every year die having high blood pressure and it was found that 6 in 10 Indians have abnormal levels of blood cholesterol [2]. An increase in blood cholesterol signifies an increase in a man's blood pressure, which can easily lead to abnormal blood pressure,e.g. high blood pressure. Generally, Prediction refers to the output of an algorithm after it has been trained on a dataset. Here Authors tried to predict whether a sample can have blood pressure and cholesterol or both present or not by analyzing some datasets. Generally, for making these types of predictions, machine learning algorithms are a very appropriate and most-used technique. A Multiple Linear Regression was applied in this study. Data has been analyzed through Multiple Linear Regression Analysis (MRA). The proposed model is tested on a Primary Data Set, prepared by Techno Engineering College Banipur’s students, and the relevant data of this Dataset has been collected from some districts in West Bengal, India. Through this research, approximately 76 percent of the data was predicted correctly.

Religious and social group diversity in borrowing and spending behaviour: Analysis of survey results from rural West Bengal, India

India is a nation characterised by diversity in religion and caste. This paper attempts to determine whether diversity among religious and social groups has any impact on the borrowing and spending behaviour of households in West Bengal, India. We conduct a Fairlie decomposition analysis to evaluate the religious and caste differences in the socio-economic variables that mostly contribute to the disparity in institutional borrowing, use of institutional loans, and use of banking services using a household-level primary survey in two districts of West Bengal, India. The results of the decomposition analysis in terms of social group differences and religious group differences show that households belonging to the unreserved category and the Hindu population are more likely to hold savings bank accounts, make use of institutional borrowing, and use loans for production purposes than different reserved categories and the Muslim population, respectively. The gap between the reserved and unreserved populations and the Hindu and Muslim populations in terms of institutional borrowing and the use of loans for production purposes widens for regular wage earners and casual labourers in nonagriculture. To reduce the gap between social and religious groups, occupation categories play a major role. The implication is that wider access to financial services should be provided to all sections of the population.

Identification Of A Suitable Probability Distribution For Rainfall Analysis Of Bankura District In West Bengal

The daily rainfall data of 22 years (1992 to 1993 and 1997 to 2016) of Bankura district in West Bengal were collected from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Kolkata. The data was then processed to identify the maximum rainfall received on any one day (24 hrs duration), in any week (7 days), in a month (4 weeks), in a monsoon season (4 months), pre-monsoon (4 months), post-monsoon(4 months) and in a year (365 days). The data were analysed to find out the standard deviation and coefficient of variation during all the six periods of study. The data showed that the annual daily maximum rainfall received at any time ranged between 58.7mm (minimum) to 258.8mm (maximum) indicating a large range of fluctuation during the period of study. These data were analysed using Anderson-Darling (AD) statistical goodness of fit teston the basis of probability plot to identify the best fit probability distribution for all the six period of study and the trend has been presented in this study. The lognormal distribution was found as the best fit probability distribution for the annual and monsoon period of study. The weibull (3P) was found as the best fit distribution for pre-monsoon and post-monsoon period of study. Weibull (3P), gamma (2P), lognormal, exponential and largest extreme value were observed in most of the weekly period of study as best fit probability distributions. The scientific results clearly established that the analytical procedure devised and tested in this study may be suitably applied for the identification of the best fit probability distribution of rainfall data.

A Study on Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness among Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in a Rural Area of Hooghly District, West Bengal

ABSTRACT Background: Globally, more than 40% of pregnant women experience acute obstetric problems and a large burden of it is shared by India. Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BPCR) strategy is used to addresses these problems by encouraging women and communities to effectively plan for births, deal with birth emergencies. Objective: This study was conducted to assess the status of birth preparedness and complication readiness and to find out the factors associated with inadequate BPCR among pregnant woman in a rural area of West Bengal. Methodology: Institution based, observational study with cross-sectional design was conducted from January 2019 to September 2020 among pregnant women, attending antenatal care clinics in Singur block, Hooghly district West Bengal. Sample size was 272. Participants were chosen by systematic random sampling. Response rate was 94.5% (257). Data were collected using a predesigned pretested schedule and analyzed using Microsoft Excel version 2016 and SPSS version 16.0. Results: Overall, 60.3% mothers had inadequate BPCR. 66.1% mothers had poor BPCR knowledge and 72.8% mothers had poor BPCR practice. In multivariable logistic regression model, the odds of maternal morbidity [AOR = 2.03 (1.14 –3.62), P value = 0.16], ≤4 No. of ANC visits [AOR = 10.96 (4.82–22.9), P value = 0.001], first trimester USG [OR = 12.53 (5.8–24.5), P value = 0.001] showed significance with inadequate BPCR. Conclusion: Glimpse of BPCR is seen in government programmes like Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK). Yet a big void exists among Indian pregnant women’s knowledge and practice of BPCR. Thus, there is a need to include BPCR in health care system to improve outcomes for pregnant women.

Buddhist Culture of Contemporary West Bengal (Reflections on the Bengali-speaking Buddhists)

Since the inception of Buddhism, the people of Bengal have maintained a very close relationship with Buddhist ideologies. In fact, Bengal appeared as a dominant center of Buddhist culture in the early medieval period (sixth to twelfth century CE) both for its institutional flavour as well as for state- sponsorship. However, with the fall of royal patronage and the conversion of the Buddhists to other religious faiths, Buddhism gradually lost its prominence in Bengal. It was during the colonial period (1757 to 1947 CE), Buddhism again started reviving in different corners of Bengal principally in the early twentieth century. However, the ‘Partition of Bengal Province (in 1947) appeared as a serious setback for the fate of Buddhism in this region. The East Bengali Buddhists had started a new episode of the struggle for survival in India more precisely in West Bengal as ‘refugees’ or as ‘asylum seekers. After their migration to West Bengal, the Bengali-speaking Buddhists have aspired to build up several Viharas (monasteries), Sanghasrams (spiritual hermitage), temples, and institutions in Kolkata, Sub-Himalayan Bengal, and certain other districts of West Bengal. They have preserved and maintained the Buddhist socio-cultural traditions that they have inherited from the southeastern corner of former East Bengal. This paper highlights all these aspects of the Buddhist culture of West Bengal with a fresh outlook.

Multidimensional Deprivation: Cross-District Insights in West Bengal

This study explores the intensity and inequality of multidimensional deprivation (MD)across the districts of West Bengal, a north-eastern state in India. The measure of MD covers the dimensions of Knowledge, Health and Living condition with the respective indicators. We have clustered the districts in accordance with the selected indicators. An attempt has also been taken to gauge the inequality for deprivation indicators and for multidimensional deprivation index (MDI) applying the class of Atkinson measures. This study has used the data published by Directorate of Population Census of India 2011. It is reported that value of MDI ranges from 0.013 to 0.675 across the districts in West Bengal. Purulia is the most deprived district followed by Jalpaiguri, Maldah. On the other hand, Kolkata is the least deprived among the districts preceded by North 24 Parganas, Purba Mendinipur. The cluster analysis reveals that Kolkata is the distinct from the other districts of West Bengal. It is found that Darjeeling district and Jalpaiguri district form two separate clusters. The districts of Dakshin Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Uttar Dinajpur, Maldah, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia are similar in terms of the indicators of multidimensional deprivation. The districts of West Bengal are, of course, not highly diverse in terms of multidimensional deprivation. However, inequality for MDI is higher than that for HDI of the districts.

Prevalence of Southern Leaf Blight of Maize in two major maize producing states of India

Southern corn leaf blight (SCLB) or Maydis leaf blight, caused by Bipolaris maydis, is an important disease of maize in the eastern and north-eastern part of India. Hence, to assess the severity and distribution of the disease in two distinct and major maize growing states i.e. Mizoram and West Bengal were selected. A roving survey was conducted under different agro-climatic conditions during the kharif season of 2019 and 2020 in three districts of West Bengal and as well as in Mizoram. The survey results revealed that SCLB was more prevalent in the plains of West Bengal in comparison to hilly areas of Mizoram. The mean SCLB incidence varied from 18.87% in Zemabawk, Mizoram to 63.22% in institutional farm, C-block, of BCKV, West Bengal. The mean disease severity ranged from 10.06 % in Muthi, Mizoram to 22.09% in Instructional Farm, Jaguli, BCKV, West Bengal. Both disease incidence and severity were highest at 99 DAS in all the locations surveyed. Successive surveys of SCLB in the maize growing belts across the country need to be conducted to develop a better understanding about the disease prevalence, intensity and severity under different agro-ecological conditions.

A comparative study of social security and happiness between tribal and nontribal olders in Bolpur subdivision, West Bengal

Greying of population is an emerging demographic mechanism of global population and India is also not immune to the said mechanism. As olders are physically frail, physiologically prone to morbidity, economically dependent, socially secluded, hence their social security and happiness play the important roles at older ages. The paper tries to understand the interrelation between social security and associated levels of happiness between tribal and nontribal olders of Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal. It is a cross-sectional study spread over 120 samples, comprising 40 tribal and 80 nontribal individuals. Collected data were analyzed through IBM-SPSS and Microsoft excel spreadsheets. The Likert scale and Chi-square techniques were used to represent the happiness towards social security and statistical association between variable respectively. In order to visualize and analyze the data of social security and happiness, different geospatial and statistical techniques were employed. Result shows that there exists a significant association between the range of happiness of income and psychological security with tribal background indicating the chi-square values of 0.008 and 0.000 respectively. The study is important to comprehend the social security status of elderly people in a particular region with variations in ethnicity.

Spatial Variation of Quality of Living in Selected Blocks of Murshidabad District in West Bengal, India

Quality of living conditions refer to the general well-being of individuals and societies, which includes education, family health, employment, wealth, satisfaction, safety, religious belief, freedom, etc. This research paper deals with spatial variation of quality of living regarding various basic services and amenities in selected blocks of Murshidabad district in West Bengal, India. A composite index was developed based on 19 indicators to measure the actual scenario of the living condition of households there. Different indices, such as the human capital index, financial capital index, physical capital index and housing index, have been used to measure block-level disparity and were categorised based on composite score value. As expected, the level of development is unequal, with vast areas of backwardness interspersed with micro zones of development. The findings reveal that the northern part of this region is more developed as compared with other parts of this region. The quality of living and development of a particular region depends not only upon a single criterion but also on the interplay of several socio-economic factors that determine that region’s development level. This study suggests that the backward blocks need urgent improvement in most indicators to enhance the households’ living conditions.

Farmers’ Awareness of Pesticide Use: Role of Public Library and Other Information Sources

ABSTRACT The paper highlights the source, resources, and information services for rural farmers’ communities to fulfill their information needs regarding chemical pesticides use. The main objective of this study is to determine the awareness and knowledge of farmers regarding pesticide use and its effect on their social life, society, and environment. The study also identifies their knowledge level about the source of information regarding pesticide use, storage, and disposal of pesticide containers. It highlights the farmers’ behaviors’, attitudes, and protective measures taken toward the negative effect of chemical pesticides on the environment. In this study, 110 farmer families have been randomly selected, 10 families each from 11 villages’ total of 110 families and also studied 7 public libraries and their resources and services to the farmers to help the collection of information regarding pesticide use from Narayangarh block of Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal for sample study.

Hydrochemical investigation of groundwater and probabilistic health risk assessment from fluoride and iron intake in a ferruginous Barind tract

ABSTRACT Hydrochemical properties of groundwater (n = 32) collected from eight Gram Panchayats (GP) in Kushmandi Block of South Dinajpur District in West Bengal, India and human health risk posed by groundwater fluoride (F−) and iron (Fe) are reported. About 18% and 28.7% of the collected water samples exceeded the permissible limits for F− and Fe, respectively, as per prescribed potable water quality standards of WHO and Bureau of Indian Standards. Total Dissolved Solid in groundwater never exceeded the acceptable limit of 500 mg l −1 (maximum value was 301.6 mg l −1) while NO3- ranged from near zero to 17.8 mg l−1, never exceeding the safe limit of 45 mg l−1. Hydrogeochemical analyses revealed the dominance of Ca/Na-bicarbonate type water throughout the Block and indicated that fluorite (CaF2) could be the most prominent source of F− in groundwater. Non-carcinogenic health risk index due to exposure to F− was more than unity in infants, children and adults in the order of HQChildren>HQInfant>HQAdult. Sensitivity analysis to ascertain non-carcinogenic human health risk of F− through multi-exposure pathways undertaken by Monte Carlo (MC) simulation (Oracle Crystal Ball, version 11.1.2.4.850) indicated that concentration of F− and Fe (Ci), their ingestion rate (IR), and exposure duration (ED) were the most influential governing factors behind non-carcinogenic health risks posed by F− and Fe consumption. Groundwater was rated as having ‘Low’ irrigation water quality (Sodium Adsorption Ratio, SAR <10 and Residual Sodium Carbonate, RSC of 0.41–2.88). Other important parameters of irrigation water quality, such as electrical conductivity (maximum 409 μS cm−1) and chloride (maximum 30.8 mg l−1), were also well within the recommended safe limits.

Identification of Preferable Ecotourism Destinations in Purulia District, West Bengal (India): AHP and GIS Approach

Ecotourism has gained popularity among travelers in recent years due to the detrimental effects of conventional tourism. Purulia district in West Bengal (India), with its diversified picturesque landscape such as lush green forest, mesmerizing riverscape, lakes, waterfall, hills and uniqueness in the local community’s culture gives ample potentiality of ecotourism development. The aim of this paper to explore potentiality of ecotourism in Purulia district, West Bengal, India using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographical Information System (GIS). Initially, ecotourism inventory dataset was developed based on following criteria: Elevation, slope, proximity to river, distance from road, distance from settlements, distance from ecological sites, distance from railway, distance from tourism sites using ARC-GIS 10.6.1 software. Later, the suitability map of ecotourism development has been developed by applying Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) with combination of the criteria with their respective weights and categorized into five suitability classes as highly suitable (S1), moderately suitable (S2), suitable (S3), less suitable (S4) and unsuitable (S5). Finally, after the identification of suitable zones, six alternatives ecotourism destinations are identified. This proposed method may be helpful for the local stakeholders and public administration in identifying potential ecotourism destination and planning for sustainable ecotourism development.

Awareness, perceptions, and choices of physicians pertaining to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in India: A formative research study

IntroductionIndia accounts for one-fifth of the global burden of cervical cancer cases and mortality. A safe and effective vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, the primary cause of cervical malignancies, is available in India but multiple barriers lead to its low uptake in the country. Physicians are a key stakeholder and communicator in the Indian health system and have the potential to increase HPV vaccine uptake. ObjectiveWe undertook formative research to understand awareness, perceptions and choices of physicians when recommending the HPV vaccine to parents of adolescent girls. MethodsWe conducted in-depth interviews with 32 physicians in two districts of West Bengal. Data collection was carried out between July and August 2019. The data was transcribed, coded, and analyzed using NVivo software using the thematic analysis technique. ResultsOur findings suggest that while physicians are generally aware about the burden of cervical cancer and its prevention by HPV vaccination, they face several barriers to recommending the HPV vaccine routinely and strongly. These include the lack of national-level guidance on the age eligibility and dosage, lack of practice-level opportunities such as well or non-sick visits and other routine adolescent vaccines, practice-level barriers like out-of-pocket cost and vaccine availability, and perceived parental hesitancy arising from reluctance to discuss cervical cancer, its prevention, and HPV vaccination. ConclusionsPhysicians in our study exhibited hesitancy when recommending the HPV vaccine. They also faced logistical barriers. It is important that the barriers pertaining to when and how physicians recommend the vaccine be tackled through further education, policy change, and development and implementation of interventions that are evidenced-based.

Exploring The Level of Livelihood Security of The Farmers Adopted Integrated Farming System in West Bengal

The present study was conducted at three blocks of Cooch Behar district in West Bengal due to the availability of farmers adopted the Integrated farming system for securing their livelihoods. A multistage, purposive and random sampling methods were followed in case of selecting the respondents for the present study. A structured interview schedule was prepared and personal interview method was used for data collection. A total of 175 farmers taken for the study who adopted Integrated Farming System for securing their livelihood. Level of livelihood security was taken as dependent variable and other 21 independent variables were considered for the study to explore the relational dispositions. The study revealed that majority of the farmers (57.14 %) were in the category of medium level of livelihood security followed by high level (24.00%) and low level of livelihood security (18.86%). The independent variables education, family education status, occupation, annual family income, annual family expenditure, land holding, irrigation facilities, material possession, animal possession, credit seeking behaviour, information seeking behaviour, social participation, scientifi c orientation, economic orientation, innovativeness and management effi ciency had shown positive and signifi cant association with the livelihood security and only the variable material possession had shown positively and signifi cantly contributing towards characterising the dependent variable, level of livelihood security.

Extreme Rainfall Pattern Analysis for Drought Prone Shali Reservoir Area in West Bengal of India

Rainfall is one of the major sources of needed water. Rainfall amount also determines the agricultural and industrial activities in the region. The present study has been conducted to examine the rainfall trend in the Shali reservoir area of the Gangajalghati block in Bankura district in West Bengal. The Shali reservoir was made to provide irrigation water in the Gangajalghati block. Water insufficiency is a habitual threat to the people of this area. Here the planting and production of crops highly depend on the constricted period of inconsistent rainfall. About 80-90 % of rainfall usually occurs in this area from June to September until the onset of heavy rains. Therefore, in this drought-prone area, the analysis of rain patterns is very vital to understand the change in rainfall at all times. The monthly and annual rainfall data have been taken from field surveys and secondary surveys for almost the last 40 years (1980 to 2020). The Mann Kendall (MK) and Sen’s Slope estimate (SSE) tests have been applied to recognize the standing trend and the SSE test has been used to discover the existing trend and extent of change in rainfall over time. The rainfall data has been taken from ten rain gauge stations surrounding the study area. The relevant maps were prepared using Remote Sensing and the rainfall distribution pattern was analyzed with the help of the kriging interpolation technique of GIS. The annual MK test shows a positive trend but the season-wise MK test is showing a negative trend during monsoon season. SPI result describes that the study area is not getting normal rainfall during the monsoon season, it may create harmful effects on agricultural productivity. The study suggests taking proper drought management programs to combat this situation.