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Menstrual Health and Hygiene (“MHH”) is an increasing focus for the development sector because of the potential to improve the lives of women and girls by empowering them to understand and care for their bodies and to overcome the shame and stigma associated with cultural taboos around menstruation that exist all over the world. In West Bengal, India, embarrassment and secrecy surrounding menstruation, which is commonly considered an impurity, means that many menstruators do not understand the biological causes of menstruation, and many do not share information about their experiences managing menstruation and its impact on their daily lives. In addition, managing the waste generated by disposable sanitary pads has become a policy focus in India. This program uses reusable sanitary pads, an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective alternative to the disposable version, as a grassroots entry point to promote community discussion and education about menstruation. Activities to develop a market for affordable reusable sanitary pads are expected to provide opportunities for members of the target communities to learn about menstruation, make informed choices, and improve their economic circumstances by saving money on menstrual materials and earning money from sales activities.

This ethnographic study delves into the subsistence strategies and survival mechanisms of the Forest-Dwelling Rabha community in Alipurduar, West Bengal. It explores their traditional subsistence practices, the impact of modernization on these strategies, and the community's adaptation to changing socio-economic dynamics. Additionally, the study documents indigenous knowledge related to forest resources and management practices, analysing the sustainability of Rabha subsistence strategies and their implications for sustainable living. The study highlights the significance of gender roles in various subsistence activities, shedding light on the division of labour within the community.

Does microfinance help in women empowerment? Does women empowerment result in higher recovery rate of loans and better utilization of borrowed money in further income generating activities? We conducted primary survey on 130 women belonging to different socio economic background residing at Medinipur and South 24 Parganas of West Bengal, India. Our study suggests that access to microfinance through self help groups leads to women empowerment which in turn lead to successful recovery of loans and utilization of borrowed money.

Party politics in West Bengal is a complex and ever-evolving phenomenon deeply rooted in the state's socio-cultural history. This overview explores the dynamic landscape of party politics in West Bengal, tracing its historical evolution and examining the key players, ideological underpinnings, electoral strategies, and socio-economic factors that have influenced voter preferences over the years. From the pre-independence era's freedom struggle to the contemporary political dynamics dominated by the All-India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), West Bengal's political journey reflects its vibrant cultural mosaic and socio-political complexities. This paper also discusses the current scenario in West Bengal, highlighting the role of various political parties in recent local and assembly elections. The methodology involves a comprehensive review of academic papers and journals on various aspects of West Bengal's politics, governance, and societal dynamics. While existing literature touches on governance-related aspects like healthcare policies, decentralisation, and power sector reforms, there is a research gap in integrating these elements to provide a holistic assessment of West Bengal's governance model. The paper identifies this research gap and calls for a more comprehensive study that explores the interplay of political decisions, decentralisation efforts, and policy reforms in shaping the state's development and governance outcomes.

Dental fluorosis, a disease, results from excessive fluoride consumption mainly through drinking water during early childhood, which damages tooth-forming cells in children. This study examines the prevalence of dental fluorosis amongst school children in the Puruliya district, located in West Bengal, India. This is because the Puruliya district is one of the worst-affected fluoride areas in India. When compared to the World Health Organization’s 1.5 mg/l permitted limit for fluoride in drinking water, the highest fluoride levels were found to be 8.28 mg/l in the Kashipur block of the district. Therefore, to perform a study to ascertain the prevalence of dental fluorosis among school-going children between the ages of 6 and 14 based on the Dean’s Index, the Kashipur block of the Puruliya District was selected. The fluoride levels of drinking water sources are tested in the public health and Engineering department in the Puruliya district. The average level of fluoride discovered in drinking water ranges from 0.42 mg/l to 5.23 mg/l. The data were analysed with SPSS-20 statistical software, and mapping was done with Arc-GIS 10.5. Linear regression is applied to test the correlation. The findings demonstrate a very strong positive correlation (r = 0.92) between fluoride concentration and the frequency of childhood dental fluorosis. Dental fluorosis was observed to afflict 45.20% of the children in the research area, and it was more common in female children (46%) than in male children (44.40%). There were 226 students with dental fluorosis between the ages of 6 and 15, of whom 16.4% were in Grade I, 13.2% in Grade II, 10.0% in Grade III, and 5.6% in Grade IV.

The COVID-19 pandemic has fast-tracked the development of digital applications and inspired everyone to adapt to the technologies to curb the spread of outbreak. As this crisis intensifies, the rapid usage of digital devices and apps has echoed the serious concerns about civil liberties, privacy, and data protection. Considering the situation, this research aimed to explore the internet using habits of the youths of West Bengal, a state in eastern India, during COVID-19. Besides, the paper explored their experiences using various digital applications, and the fundamental digital literacy of them and the safeguards they often take to protect their data from breaches. Thus,the paper presents the results by conducting an online survey among the youths in West Bengal. The result, from 215 participants, highlighted that the increased use of these digital applications has not matched the demand for digital privacy literacy among the young generation of the state. While this pandemic has raised their concerns over digital privacy and data protection, yet they do not undertake any strong protection mechanisms to protect them digitally. Besides, this paper suggests suitable plans to raise awareness among this generation and form a healthy digital citizenship with a proper regulatory framework as it is the need of the hour.

‘Culture’ denotes the co-shared beliefs, values, ethos, norms, lifeworlds, and activities commonly represent nature-culture reciprocity. In several remote areas of India, folk culture still breaths within its age-old life world. Against this backdrop, the southwestern part of West Bengal, also known as ‘Jangal Mahal’ has been studied in the present research. In this area, approximately 40% of the population directly depends on indigenous sources of livelihood, and they belong to tribal communities like Mahato, Kurmi, Lodha, Santal, Bauri, and others. These native people are culturally distinct and are identified through their folksongs and dance forms, such as Tusu, Kirtan, Baul, Bhadu, and folk dances, such as Chhau, Khati, etc. However, urban spaces and citizens’ choices for entertainment have brought about considerable changes in the culture and life of these people. Resultantly, with the increasing pace, deterioration in the heritage and culture of such groups seems to set in. Thus, this study highlights the changing scenarios of cultural crises, deteriorating heritage values, and placemaking. We have followed participatory methods, including field observation, interviews and group discussions. And a door-to-door survey was conducted in the 12 villages of four districts with a semi-structured survey schedule. Sixty troupes were selected for interview and Focused Group Discussions (FGDs). The findings show that values and cultural practices change over time, thereby losing their identity. The placemaking of popular culture results in a deep crisis in livelihood and lifestyle. People are slowly adopting other modes of earning, which further threaten their culture. This study aims to suggest suitable ameliorative measures to preserve the pristine cultural art forms and safeguard livelihood and skill sets.

What are the consequences of election violence for citizens' political attitudes? We argue that in polarized contexts, citizens' interpretation of electoral violence depends on their partisan affiliations. When presented with information alleging co-partisans' involvement in violence, people with strong partisan identities become more likely to assert that elections were free and fair. We test this expectation with a vignette experiment in West Bengal after India's 2019 elections, presenting respondents with information about violence while varying the partisan identity of the perpetrator. Consistent with expectations, supporters of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) increased their evaluations of election quality when hearing about co-partisan violence. We find no evidence of disconfirmation bias for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters; their recent shift to the party plausibly explains this finding.

Selecting an appropriate location for a large infrastructure project poses difficult situations. It shall satisfy sustainability indicators and establish harmony among multiple goals of multiple stakeholders. In such a situation, Multi-Criteria Decision Making techniques allow assessing qualitative and quantitative attributes, analysing and removing subjective biases and help in arriving at objective decisions. However, a single Multi-Criteria Decision Making technique may not be an effective tool to generate concrete results as there is no validation of the results. By utilising hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods, one can incorporate, gauge, and assess the range of social, economic, and environmental impacts precisely and achieve an accurate result by validating results by other methods. Therefore, this paper develops a model called as Social, Economic, Environmental and Technical Assessment model. It combines four fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making techniques viz. Fuzzy Stepwise Weighted Assessment Ratio Analysis, Fuzzy Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis, Fuzzy Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment and Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. This paper utilises the case of hydropower plants in India, how the policy and decision-makers can arrive at the selection of the best location for an infrastructure project. According to the assessment value, Teesta Low Dam IV (Darjeeling, West Bengal) is the preferred hydropower plant for all selected methods. The State could bring social justice, ecological stability; achieve economic benefits and sustainability by appropriating this proposed model in other development fields. © 2021 The Authors

After independence, various initiatives and strategies have played an important role in providing better education and better learning outcomes for students. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan is a program centrally sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resources Development of India to promote secondary education in public schools throughout India. According to the RMSA guidelines, school safety conditions are an important aspect. The term ‘safety’ is comprehensive and it covers several aspects. The present study aims to investigate the present status of safety conditions in secondary schools among selected districts of West Bengal in the light of RMSA. The findings of the present study clearly show that selected secondary schools of both Nadia and Murshidabad districts have no proper safety conditions according to the guidelines of RMSA and comparatively the safety conditions are better among selected secondary schools of Nadia district than in the selected secondary schools of Murshidabad district.

A library can be defined as a location where information materials in various formats are methodically gathered, arranged, kept, maintained, and made available to users when necessary to suit their information needs. This study's purpose is to examine how library services affect students' academic performance in secondary schools in West Bengal's Bankura. Researcher used survey method and descriptive statistics for conducting this research work. Researcher find out and conclude that is significant difference between library service and academic achievement of secondary level students Ho1 in Bankura District and Ho2 is finding that negative relationship observed between library service and academic achievement of secondary level of students.

Rice plays a vital role in the socio-economic aspects of Purba Bardhaman district, West Bengal - the 'Rice Bowl’ of the State. The glorious past of this district is associated with several indigenous rice varieties and also the direct relation with the livelihood and social status of the farmers. However, after the Green Revolution in the 1960s, High Yielding Varieties (HYV) flourished rapidly at the cost of indigenous rice varieties. Later on, such aggression resulted in less return gradually and the need for another alteration is expected in the advent of the second Green Revolution for better prospects and profitable farming practices. This study tries to analyse the socio-economic viability and associated risk hazards of both Gobindabhog indigenous and HYV’s rice cultivation. In doing so, the study attempts to search for the alternative one in the contemporary crisis of agriculture taking into account the farmers' socio-economic issues of the study area. Respondents' interviews with a cross-sectional; multi-layered; semi-structured questionnaire and secondary data were used with both thematic narratives and quantitative techniques using IBM SPSS version 20.0 software to reflect the comparison with ground truth. It might be suggested that the cultivation and spreading of indigenous varieties accompanied with HYV’s would be a future solution for both farmers and environmental concerns.

Decision-making power is a vital key for assessing the empowerment of a person. Empowerment increases self-efficacy by which one can control one’s mode of life for survival in a better way. It is an established fact that women are the most disempowered section in our society and the rural Muslim women are relatively more oppressed than others as there is the predominance of social-cultural and economic inequality among this minority community. As a result, these women have very limited opportunities to participate in the decision-making process related to their family matters and societal affairs linked with their own lives. Considering this scenario, the present study attempts to examine and analyse the decision-making power of homemakers in rural Muslim communities at micro level, taking Santoshpur village of Murshidabad district, West Bengal, as a case study. The methodology designed for the present study integrates both quantitative and qualitative methods based on field surveys. For this, fifty respondents have been selected using stratified purposive random sampling technique, and data have been acquired through face-to-face interviews through a semi-structured questionnaire. Then, the Cumulative Empowerment Index (CEI) is constructed based on selected eight key indicators to measure respondents' decision-making ability and liberty. Multiple Correlations are also computed, indicating that education and economic dependencies are the most critical determinants influencing women's empowerment and decision-making processes. The study also reveals that the existing rigid cultural system is mainly responsible for the suppression of women’s identity as well as their thoughts. But there remains hope for the next-generation girl children as different schemes are being taken up by the Government of West Bengal to promote and popularise women’s education at different levels.

Cities, acting as engines of economic growth and generators of public finance for development, will usher in an urban revolution in the developing world. Such an urban revolution is sure to bring in opportunities to millions through the increasing level of urbanisation. This rising trend of urbanisation coupled with the increasing functional responsibilities of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) has been creating serious problems for the provision and financing of urban infrastructure. The resource crunch at each level of government in general, and the local level in particular, has instigated the need for analysing the causes behind such adverse state of municipal finance. Against this background, this paper attempts to evaluate the state of municipal finance in West Bengal by performing a comparative analysis of relevant indices. Acknowledging the potential of municipal finances in improving the delivery of basic services, the present study uses secondary data to demonstrate that the higher availability of essential urban services is associated with higher levels of revenue generation. This study presents a spatial and town class-based pattern analysis of the finances of ULBs of West Bengal in terms of their financial base, its adequacy, and their revenue and expenditure performance. The main thrust of this study is to examine the patterns of finances in ULBs in West Bengal and to present a comparative picture thereof along with per capita analysis of revenue and expenditure components based on size categories of the ULBs.

Adolescence in girls is a crucial transition phase during which they experience biological and psychological changes along with changes in social outlook. This phase provides an opportunity to lay the foundation for their future health. But, in rural areas, adolescent girls are often deprived of better nutrition and proper health care guide, resulting in serious health issues like malnutrition, stunting, wasting, and anaemia. Moreover, their access to health care services is subjected to various constraints as infrastructural and societal barriers such as regressive norms, social stigma, gendered family structure, etc. Thus, the present study attempts to explore the perceived barriers that prevent rural adolescent girls from accessing health care services at the micro-level. A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out after randomly selecting 120 adolescent girls in the age cohort of 10-19 years in the Raina-I block of Purba Bardhaman district. The results suggested that societal barriers have a significant influence over health-related decision-making. Besides, lack of quality health care services and economic burden are some of the other significant obstacles observed here.

In India,  Assembly Elections were held in Assam, West Bengal, Kerela, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the first half of 2021. Driving this study is an attempt to analyse the election results of the state of Assam where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies, Mitrajot or National Democratic Alliance (NDA), successfully defeated the Indian National Congress (INC), and its allies, Mahajot (Grand Alliance). Drawing primarily upon secondary data and applying GIS techniques, the study makes a critical analogy of how Mitrajot managed to accomplish victory. &nbsp

Generally, new districts are formed to facilitate administrative expediency or ease of administrative connectivity in a much better way. Often it reduces the distance between the district headquarters and remote areas resulting in easy access to the district headquarters with investing less time and strain. Apparently, it becomes helpful to interact with the beneficiaries in implementing and monitoring the government schemes and programmes in the areas near the district headquarters and remote areas, which is essential for the overall development of a region. In the present study, a meso-level specific comparative analysis has been done at inter and intra district level on the basis of some selected socio-economic indicators (based on Census of India data sources) to understand the impact of reorganisation of the administrative boundaries on the development of Uttar and Dakshin Dinajpur, West Bengal, India. &nbsp

The exodus of men is the most opted strategy adopted by rural households to diversify income and reduce risks associated with agriculture. Migration plays a very important role in reducing the liquidity and credit constraints of rural households in India. Data shows there are roughly 30 per cent internal migrants in the country. Despite the existence of studies on patterns and determinants of migration in various out-migrating states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala etc., literature on the same in States with high in-migration are scarce. This article makes an attempt to comprehensively look into patterns and determinants of in-migration in three states. We have used the unit level data on migration (NSSO 64th Round) and tabulated it with suitable statistical techniques. To have a better understanding of determinants of in-migration in the states of Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal, a binary logistic regression model have been employed. We found that the majority of male migrants in these states is from within the state and but from different districts. Another interesting finding is that determining factors for migration vary across states. Social group, education, age, monthly expenditure are significant factors in determining migration decisions.

Now-a-days websites and its services are the most growing and the fast-changing segment, play an important role as an informational gateway for every institution through online mode. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and evaluate the web contents of twenty-six state universities websites of West Bengal selected according to UGC, under Ministry of Education, Government of India and its contribution to global academic knowledge base. After preparing check list, various aspects related to the content of university website are examined; such as accessibility, currency, speed, accuracy, aesthetic value, language, user friendliness, navigation, currency, relevancy, applicability, pertinence and qualitative nature of graphics, animations, existing library facilities, collection, availability of services and variety types of information resources provided by the library elements etc.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of introducing cloud architecture for public library system in areas where library automation is operational on a standalone server. It also proposes a cloud based model library management system to function on an affordable, robust architecture. The paper made an attempt to highlight the present status of library automation and networking among public libraries in West Bengal. It presents functional requirements for a SaaS based (Software as a Service) model. The simulation approach for the model architecture supports the possibility to connect all public libraries across different hierarchical tiers under the public library system of West Bengal. The proposed model will upscale workflow, reduce cost and duplication of work in terms of procurement, cataloguing, classification and creating an union catalogue/ OPAC with the provision of resource sharing. The current study is the first of its kind, proposing a SaaS cloud based model architecture for a huge public library network. It suggests ways to improve public library services and coordination across the network to visually present the holdings of the entire network to the user community via a cost effective infrastructure.

The intellectual output of any academic institution is variably measured, analyzed and interpreted by the quality of contributions through research publications. The creation and use of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) have paved the way for more scholarly outreach. Beside keeping the hard copies in the library book-shelves, the academic institutions are in the process of making these research assets available for public sharing. ‘Shodhganga’ being one of the crucial projects undertaken by the INFLIBNET center provides a common space for the Indian Universities to upload and share their institutionally published theses and dissertations in electronic form. In this paper, the authors have tried to map the contributions of the State Universities of West Bengal which have signed MoU with INFLIBNET for promoting research by sharing their ETDs in Open Access Repositories.

The present study was undertaken with a view to know the information needs and information seeking behaviour of agricultural research fraternity of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya (UBKV), Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal (India), which comprises of teachers, scientists and extension specialists. The study employed the survey method with the help of self designed questionnaire. The findings reveal that 76.40% of the respondents visited the library for issue/return of books, while 59.55% respondents visited the library for accessing electronic information resources. Furthermore, 69.66% of the respondents were seeking their desired information from the library for research work, while 55% respondents seeking information specially for writing articles. Some of the problems have also been identified during the study, which restrict the respondents to get their desired information such as 73% of the respondents were facing the problem of ‘lack of time due to routine teaching, research and administrative load’ and 48.31% respondents reported that ‘lack of awareness about the library resources and services’ is the major barrier for them for seeking desired information. Based on the results, the researchers have also made some suggestions so that informational demands of the respondents can be fulfilled at their satisfaction level.

Since the introduction of social media, communication is becoming more and more dynamic every day. Communication has become more virtual than physical. More and more people – young and old alike – are fascinated by social media and it is a trend that is not going down very soon. For a long period in the future, social media will shape the way people interact, share information, form opinions, and lead individual and collective actions. India has been experiencing major changes in the agricultural extension system since the beginning of the 21st century. Social media can play a vital role in this kind of new and fast-changing agricultural extension system. Keeping the above fact in mind, the research was conducted to investigate the perception and use of social media by the agricultural extension specialists of Uttarbanga Krishi Vishwavidylaya, Coochbehar (West Bengal). Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 76 extension specialists. The major activity on social media was searching for news and events and sharing information. A major impeding factor for social media use was the lack of authenticity of the information shared online. The study found that most of the respondents were aware of social media and use these platforms to connect with friends and relatives. Overall, the survey found that social media is a very useful tool in agricultural extension and rural advisory services.

Institute libraries as resource centers and disseminators of information occupy primary place in Institute setup. Library websites integrate it resources and services and has to be taken in designing and developing from perspective of users needs. The present study is concerned with web based content analysis of library websites of Institute of National Importance in West Bengal, India. The required content information has been collected through searching, browsing and analyzing the selected library websites of said Institutes during October to December, 2020. The library websites of studied Institutes were identified from Google, Wikipedia and other E-Resources. Only five Institute libraries of IIM, Kolkata; ISI, Kolkata; IIT, Kharagpur; IIEST, Shibpur and WBNUJS, Kolkata have separate library homepage which are direct accessed by the library users. Remaining other nine studied Institute library websites are accessed through their Institute websites. ISI library, Kolkata got highest total score of 27 out of 40 points ranked with ‘Very Good/Above Average’, followed by IIM library with 23 points ranked with ‘Good/Average’; both IIT and WBNUJS Libraries with 22 points ranked with ‘Good/Average’ and BI Library with 17 points ranked as ‘Good/Average’. Out of fourteen Institute libraries, none of the Institute library website obtained ‘Excellent’ ranked of content analysis on library websites. The main purpose of this study is to guide the Library & Information Science Professionals in improving their existing Institute library websites.

My discussion centres on local meanings of colonial heritage buildings, popular history and cultural identity, in a context of rapid urban development. The study site is the town core of Danish-founded Serampore, a suburb to Kolkata, one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. Based on data mainly relating to my personal engagement in heritage conservation in Serampore, I analyse how once European buildings, and the history they are material manifestations of, are today inscribed in categories of local identity by the area’s citizens. A story of ghosts turned heritage activists introduces the article’s main themes and central arguments.

Purpose of the present study is to evaluate, awareness and use of marketing of Library services and products for better use of the library resources in the Government undergraduate college libraries in the sub-division of Durgapur, West Bengal, India. The study has used the two most common methods of survey, namely the descriptive survey method and the questionnaire tool through simple random sampling. The study shows that Computerization of the library system plays a vital role in the present scenario for better use of library services and information products as well as library resources. Both the users and the staff of the library were ignorant about the usage of the technology. This resulted in causing a barrier in availing of proper benefits of the available library services, information products and library resources. The study is an original research work mainly dealing with data collected through survey of the under graduate students of the among the students from Durgapur Government College, Michael Madhusudan College and Durgapur Woman’s College, situated in sub-division of Durgapur, West Bengal, India and collected data has been evaluated. Results are highlighting for the major findings, suggestions and conclusion.

The present analytical study demonstrates the present status and trend of doctoral research in Library and Information science (LIS) discipline in the Universities of West Bengal. For this purpose, the primary data have been collected from the Central Library and LIS Schools of the respective Universities. Total 230 Ph.D. theses have been awarded in LIS discipline from West Bengal for 40 years period from 1979 to 2018. The bibliographical details of the theses have been interpreted using different parameters like university, year, researcher’s gender, supervisor’s gender, supervision pattern, active supervisor, language and subject. A steady development has been observed till 2000 and since then the growth of LIS research is increasing significantly. The result shows that Jadavpur University produces maximum theses and the topics like ‘Users’ study’, ‘Information seeking behaviour’ and ‘Information Sources & Services’ are the apparent focus area among the scholars.

Seasonal migration is a common livelihood strategy among marginal and landless people of the western part of West Bengal. The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) and Census data have failed to provide information on seasonal migration and livelihoods at the micro-level. The present study focuses on the nature, characteristics and factors of seasonal migration with its importance as a livelihood strategy among women agricultural labourers (WALs) in Soul Ponamara mouza of Hirbandh block at the micro-level. The study is based on primary data collection using a purposive sampling method and a semi-structured questionnaire, personal interview and focus group discussion. This study reveals that seasonal migration from Soul Ponamara to the adjacent agriculturally prosperous districts viz. Purba Bardhaman and Hooghly (4 to 6 times in a year) is a common livelihood strategy among WALs in the study area, and its proportion is almost equal to when compared to male migrants. The small size of agricultural land holding, existing monoculture system, lack of irrigation facilities, a limited job opportunity in the Soul Ponamara mouza and its surrounding area (Amjhuri, Bijardihi, Chaka Doba, Moshiara, Bamni and Rangametia) provoke women labourers to move out in searching of works. In contrast, high wage and massive demand for skilled and semi-skilled agricultural labourers during sowing and harvesting season in the destination area, that is, paddy and potato fields of Purba Bardhaman and Hooghly districts acted as a magnet to absorb these immigrants into the workforce. This study concludes that seasonal migration opted for employment and income generation is the primary livelihood strategy adopted by the rural WALs of this mouza to cope up with the existing poverty and food insecurity.

Migration brings about changes in the cultural traits of both migrants and the receiving society. This becomes even more crucial, especially for India, which is characterised by rich cultural diversity and substantial inter-state migration. Cultural integration is the strategy of cultural exchange wherein one community incorporates changes without sacrificing its own culture and thus, pave the way for a more stable and harmonious society. Migration in Asansol dates back to the early 19th Century when the newly set up coal mining and the subsequent industrial development generated the demand for labour. Migrants brought with them a distinct culture which had to be reconstructed in the new cultural setup. This study is an attempt to understand the phenomena of cultural and psychological integration of the migrants in Asansol. A descriptive method has been employed to comprehend the migrants’ adaptation and the consequent socio-cultural changes.  A sample of 370 individuals has been taken to explore the migrant’s outlook toward integration with the larger society. Emphasis has been laid upon the way the migrants reconstruct themselves, appraise their perception, and adopt the dominant cultural traits. The study reveals that the migrants have immensely influenced the culture of the region under investigation.

This study aims to explore the erosion of traditional seed supply system (TSSS) in Murshidabad district of West Bengal with reference to the erosion of rice diversity in the district. Agriculture is the main occupation of Murshidabad because of its favourable climate and quality of soil. The investigators had interviewed 400 cultivators from all the 26 community development blocks in the district and found that 164 varieties of rice were once available in the farmers’ fields and at present only 12 are being cultivated marginally. In the case of high yielding varieties (HYV), farmers generally prefer to buy seeds from the market for consistent yield. A very little percentage of farmers keep HYV seeds for the next year’s planting material.

It is well established that fertilizers & pesticides increase agricultural production. Many research works have been made on the environmental aspect of fertilizers & pesticides. In this paper, author has made an attempt to assess the impact of fertilizers and pesticides on agricultural production of West Bengal during 2001-02-2012-13 with the help of multiple regression analysis (along with ratio analysis & theoretical study). Regression analysis clearly indicates that fertilizers and pesticides bear negative relationship with agricultural production.

This paper explores the ‘expanded state’ in post-liberalisation India within the context of official responses to the Maoist insurgency in rural central and eastern India. I analyse a scheme called the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship, which was launched as part of the central government’s attempt to wean ordinary men and women away from Maoist insurgents through rural development. Under this scheme, young women and men are appointed to assist state officials in implementing rural development programmes in districts classified as ‘Left-Wing Extremist’. What does the institution and practice of this fellowship tell us about the state in India today in the context of counterinsurgency and beyond? I address this question on the basis of ethnographic fieldwork in an erstwhile Maoist district in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. By closely shadowing the everyday work of one Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellow (PMRDF), I show how the PMRDF is located outside the state, and yet constitutes the state. By focussing on the role of the PMRDF, I reveal one of the many new configurations of the state that are emerging in India today.

Analysis of politics in urban West Bengal has focussed on the near hegemonic control of political parties and the state on daily life – overlooking or under-accounting for the complex institutional assemblages that shape spaces of the political in daily life. Addressing this empirical gap, this paper examines the role of social clubs, who discursively imagine themselves to be not political in governing the city. I demonstrate the ways that clubs, as a particular socio-cultural institution, territorialise power in order to produce governable space and in turn act as both alternative to the state and party and intermediaries with them. Mobilising evidence from extensive qualitative research on governance in two small cities I seek to complicate and nuance existing narratives on everyday politics, the party and the role of clubs in West Bengal. And in doing so offer theoretical contributions to the ways we understand political subjects and the social production of the heterogeneous overlapping territories of governance that characterise postcolonial cities.

Brackishwater aquaculture, the farming of shrimps and fishes in coastal areas is practiced both in traditional and scientific methods. A study was conducted to assess the connectedness between the profile characteristics, their information sourcing and productivity levels. The study indicated that systems and states differ significantly (p<0.01) both in terms of profile status and productivity levels. Private extension services were dominant in scientific farming while traditional systems depend on state fisheries departments for inputs and technical advisory. Therefore, taking into account the relative strengths the state departments may partner with research institutions and input companies respectively for technology support and reaching the farmers located in remote locations. Mobile phone applications may be developed and launched for connecting the technology, inputs, services and market with the farming community.

In the census of 2011 in India, more than 2500 new settlements have been classified as urban. Placed under the category of ‘census towns’, not much is known about the urbanization processes unfolding at these sites. This article presents learnings from a qualitative case study of a town in West Bengal, to argue that not only do census towns represent a subaltern urbanization but also that they are produced through a range of parallel and competing projects and practices that do not lend themselves to any easy and formulaic understanding of the urban. Borrowing the idea of “worlding” as a conceptual tool to make sense of these processes, I argue that persistent hierarchies of power in the form of caste relations, form the foundation of this urbanization process even as multiple and divergent claims and discourses seek to mould the making of the town. This calls for renewed attention to the question of social justice when reading Indian urbanization.

"Floating for Health" is a project of the Architectural Engineering graduation studio at the Delft university of Technology. This research and design project explores the problems of rural flood-prone areas in low-income regions and proposes a solution for the lack of healthcare facilities. The context that has been chosen is the region of West-Bengal in India, which experiences yearly floods during monsoon season. Due to Global warming this region is expected to experience more severe weather events over the next 50 years, this puts an enormous strain on the life of the inhabitants in these low-income rural areas. Flooding events in these regions create polluted water which can easily spread water-borne diseases and the water disrupts infrastructure to access healthcare. The focus of this project is to create a modular solution that is amphibious so local healthcare facilities can be constructed and remain accessible during floods. The proposal is a building system that can be pre-fabricated or fabricated on site and allows for communities to construct their own facility. This plywood building system consists of plywood parts and wedges to minimize the need for specialty tools and precision. The basic building system is designed as a main structure with the possibility of adding facade elements and roofing. These additions allow for local craftsmen to contribute to the design and create a final aesthetic that fits in local tradition. The proposed design is specified for West-Bengal but the basis of the building system could be used for regions all over the world., Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences

India is the second most populous country in the world. It has 29 states and 7 union territories. The state of West Bengal with nineteen districts has a well-established public library system. The present study covers the district of Murshidabad which has 160 public libraries, in total. Significantly, three categories of public libraries namely rural library, town/sub-division library and district library exists in whole district. Covering 21 public libraries with representation of all categories of libraries, the present work aims to study the collection development of material. Data for the present study has been collected through well-structured questionnaire. Study also highlights the various aspects which contributed in building collection in studied libraries. Precisely, these are donation from Member of Legislative Assembly, donation from Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation, complimentary copies from the authors, etc. Findings suggest that no-uniform growth has been witnessed in surveyed libraries.

Funding details: EAR-1014946, NSF, National Science Foundation; Funding details: EAR1014947, NSF, National Science Foundation; Funding text: The authors would like to thank the National Science Foundation (NSF), Sigma Xi, and Kansas State University for support for field trips and project management to West Bengal. The authors would also like to thank the Department of Geology at K-State for funding, as well as the Departments of Agronomy and Biology for analytical assistances. Finally, the authors are greatly indebted to the inhabitants of Murshidabad who willingly helped in the logistical aspects of field sampling throughout the field excursions, and for their understanding and continuous support for these research efforts. This work has been funded by National Science Foundation Grant Proposal Numbers (1) NSF-EAR1014947 (Datta-KState) and (2) NSF EAR-1014946 (Johannesson-Tulane), and (3) Sigma Xi Grants in Aid G20141015720343 (Vega-KState).QC 20171205

Time is an important aspect of present day life. Everyone tries to manage time in their daily lives, but women often face many hurdles in this respect. They work in their homes as well as in the public sphere, which doubles their actual workload. Their responsibilities increase further when women are engaged in the field of governance as local representatives. The work of a local representative is considered as a 24×7 thankless job in the Indian context, and women councillors(WCs) have to work just as hard as the men. However, in the domestic sphere, because of gendered nature of household chores, women still tend to do more work than men. Due to this reason, women have to manage their time in order to provide better services to the citizens and ensure that their household duties are completed flawlessly. This paper raises the issues related to such management of time by the elected women in the urban governance of West Bengal. The issues are: first, the duration of work as a councillor and its relation with the honorarium they receive; second, the extent to which their household work hinders their path to creating their identity in urban governance; and third, the degree to which these two activities influence the quality of their leisure time. In 1995, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) developed a methodology to analyse the value of time based on the time-use activities. This research underpins this methodology to justify the unpaid and underpaid work of the WCs as well as their management of time between indoor and outdoor activities. The primary data was collected by conducting individual interviews with 38 women councillors in the four selected small cities(Darjeeling, Balurghat, Raniganj and Chinsurah) of West Bengal.

There are several endemic areas (hot spot) of esophageal cancer (EC) around the world and the geochemical structure of that area has a vital role for the endemicity. Different elements in soil are lixiviated in water which is the major source of different elements needed for the living system. Thus, the elemental status of soil and drinking water of a particular area influences the elemental status ofliving system. In human system, the deficiencies of Zn and Mo have got an important role for the development of esophageal cancer. So, Zn and Mo contents of soil and drinking water of an endemic area of esophageal cancer may be related to the development of deficiencies of these elements in human system. In the present investigation, a comparative evaluation of Zn and Mo contents in soil and drinking water of a hot spot and a cold spot of EC was carried out. The samples of soil and drinking water (underground water) were taken from Eastern Cape, South Africa (RSA) (a hot spot) and West Bengal, India (INDIA) (a cold spot). The soil and drinking water were analyzed for Zn and Mo contents using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The results showed that both soil and drinking water of Eastern Cape, South Africa was significantly deficient in Zn and Mo contents as compared to West Bengal, India. Apart from other environmental risk factors the deficiencies of Zn and Mo in both soil and drinking water of Eastern Cape, South Africa are the major contributors for the development of an endemic area of esophageal cancer.

In the present study, we investigated the distribution of soil available boron and its relationship with some soil properties in the samples collected from different locations in acidic alluvial soils of Cooch Behar district in West Bengal during 2013-2014. For the study about two hundred fifty (250) georeferenced surface soil samples covering 11 blocks of the districts were collected with the help of a global positioning system (GPS). The soil results revealed that pH of the analyzed samples varied from 4.91-7.28 (mean value 5.68) which indicated that soils of the district were in the acidic to slightly acidic in reaction. Organic carbon content of the soils varied from 0.42 to 1.62 % with a mean value of 0.96 % and about 93.7 % of the samples were high whereas about 5.2 and 1.2 % of the samples analyzed were in medium and low category, respectively. Results also indicated that the available B content in the soils of the districts ranged from 0.04 to 3.87 mg kg-1 with a mean value of 0.51 mg kg-1 and about 38.26 % soil samples were classified under low, whereas, 3.58 and 0.35 % samples were categorized as medium and high in available B content. It was further indicated that the content of available B in soil was positively correlated with organic carbon (r = 0.170**) and negatively correlated with pH (r = -0.021). Organic carbon status was also found to be positively and non significantly correlated with soil pH (r = 0.062). The results of the study would be immensely helpful for the extension workers to recommended B application considering pH and organic carbon status in acidic soils of the district for a profitable crop production.

India’s rapid economic growth has frequently been marred by struggles over land acquisition and displacement. This paper re-examines one such case. In 2006, protests erupted in Singur (a small cluster of villages in West Bengal) against government initiatives to acquire land for a private industrial project. The protests gathered enough momentum to stall the project, and went on to have a decisive impact on the electoral fortunes of the government, thus attaining a cult status in the country’s development-displacement narratives. This paper presents the Singur story in a new light, arguing that there was a political character to the entire episode, largely ignored by mainstream literature. Based on the idea of the ‘shadow-state’ (Harriss-White 2003), the paper examines the role played by the political managers of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)—CPI(M)—and highlights three themes—choice of land, acquiring consent, and negotiation—to build its narrative.

The key purpose of this research is to examine the level of attainment of rural development in the two districts—Burdwan and Murshidabad. The reasons for selecting these two districts stems from the fact that majority of the population of these two districts dwell in rural areas. The concept of rural development is comprehensive. It includes economic development of rural people through the development of productive sectors and employment associated with rural infrastructural development as well human development. Therefore, rural development includes in its domain all the aspects of human development of the rural people. The present Central as well as State Governments have undertaken different policies and plans to bring about positive changes amidst the rural people. In most cases, however, the policies and plans fail to achieve the desired level of changes in the rural areas (Desai, 1991). Although in fewer isolated cases, some success has been achieved, but overall development remains to be reached. This research, based mainly on secondary data aims to investigate the scale of progress in the two districts —Burdwan and Murshidabad of West Bengal, India, in the areas embracing social correlates of rural poverty, basic infrastructure facilities, standard of living and quality of life. The data are analysed with the help of statistical and cartographical analysis.