Haroa (community development block)

Location

Haroa is located at 22°35′54″N 88°40′46″E.

Haroa CD Block is bounded by Deganga and Basirhat II CD Blocks in the north, Basirhat I and Minakhan CD Blocks in the east, Bhangar II CD Block in South 24 Parganas district in the south and Barasat II CD Block in the west.

Area

Haroa CD Block has an area of 152.81 km².

Physical features

North 24 Parganas district is part of the Gangetic delta, lying east of the Hooghly River. The country is flat. It is a little raised above flood level and the highest ground borders the river channels. The rivers in the district were formerly distributaries of the Ganges but their mouths have long been filled up and blocked. The area is described as a sort of a drowned land broken by swamps. Land in the north-east of the district is higher than that of the rest of the district. The sturdy peasants raise crops of rice, jute and sugarcane from the alluvial soil. There are clumps of palm and fruit trees in which village homesteads nestle. Industrial activity is concentrated in the narrow strip of land along the Hooghly River. The south-eastern part of the district gradually merges into the Sunderbans. Parts of the metropolitan city of Kolkata extend over southern part of the district.

Villages in Minakhan and Haroa CD Blocks are located in the Piyali-Bidyadhari plain.

Sundarbans

The Sundarbans is a flat lowland susceptible to tidal waves along the 260 km shoreline of the Bay of Bengal. The total expanse of Sundarbans is about 2.05 million hectares (8,000 square miles). Of this, only 0.42 million hectares (1,629 square miles or 10,43,000 acres) are under the reserve forests including about 0.19 million hectares covered by creeks and channels. The area is prone to natural calamities such as cyclones, thunderstorms with occasional hail and floods. There are more than 63,400 km of embankments but the floods caused by high tidal bores, often wash away much of the embankments, already weakened and broken by earlier cyclonic storms.

In May 2009, the district was hit by high speed cyclone named Aila and subsequent rainfall which continued for two days. This created a disaster in 20 out of 22 blocks of the district. 10 out of 27 municipalities of the district were also severely affected.

Six CD Blocks of North 24 Parganas are included in the Sundabans area – Hingalganj, Hasnabad, Sandeskhali I and II, Minakhan and Haora.

Gram panchayats

Gram panchayats of Haroa block/ panchayat samiti are: Bakjuri, Haroa, Shalipur, Gopalpur I, Khasbalanda, Sonapukur Sankarpur, Gopalpur II and Kulti.

Demographics

As per 2011 Census of India Haroa CD Block had a total population of 214,401, all of which were rural. There were 111,080 (52%) males and 103,321 (48%) females. Population below 6 years was 27,504. Scheduled Castes numbered 50,636 and Scheduled Tribes numbered 12,728.

As per 2001 census, Haroa block has a total population of 182,499 out of which 94,205 were males and 88,294 were females. Haroa block registered a population growth of 20.78 per cent during the 1991-2001 decade. Decadal growth for the district was 22.40 per cent. Decadal growth in West Bengal was 17.84 per cent.

Large villages

Large villages in Haroa CD Block (2011 census figures in brackets): Haripur (6,315), Kharupala (6,003), Mazampur (5,556), Shankarpur (4,364), Kamarganti (9,555), Laugachhi (4,540), Ranigachhi (5,947), Khas Balandar (9,046), Atghara (5,096), Kalikapur (4,378), Gobaria Abad (4,468), Dhantala (4,567), Gopalpur (10,864) and Jampur (4,863).

Literacy

As per 2011 census the total number of literates in Haroa CD Block was 136,679 (73.13% of the population over 6 years) out of which 75,747 (55%) were males and 60,932 (45%) were females.

As per 2011 census, literacy in North 24 Parganas district was 84.06 (including urban areas outside the CD Blocks). Literacy in West Bengal was 77.08% in 2011. Literacy in India in 2011 was 74.04%.

See also – List of West Bengal districts ranked by literacy rate

Language

Bengali is the local language in these areas.

Religion

In the 2011 census Muslims numbered 131,050 and formed 61.12% of the population in Haroa CD Block. Hindus numbered 83.088 and formed 38.76% of the population. Others numbered 263 and formed 0.12% of the population.

In 1981 Hindus numbered 72,291 and formed 53.67% of the population and Muslims numbered 61,852 and formed 46.13% of the population. In 1991 Hindus numbered 78,072 and formed 51.67% of the population and Muslims numbered 73,021 and formed 48.33% of the population in Haroa CD Block. (In 1981 and 1991 census was conducted as per jurisdiction of the police station.)

In the 2011 census, Hindus numbered 7,352,769 and formed 73.46% of the population in North 24 Parganas district. Muslims numbered 2,584,684 and formed 25.82% of the population. In West Bengal Hindus numbered 64,385,546 and formed 70.53% of the population. Muslims numbered 24,654,825 and formed 27.01% of the population.

Human Development Report

According to Census 2001, 54% of the population of North 24 Parganas district live in the urban areas. The district has 1,571 inhabited villages spread over 22 community development blocks. In the urban area there are 27 municipalities, 20 census towns, 7 urban outgrowths and one town under Cantonment Board. The North 24 Parganas district Human Development Report opines that in spite of agricultural productivity in North 24 Parganas district being rather impressive 81.84% of rural population suffer from shortage of food. The number of families living below the poverty line vary widely from block to block. Even in some municipal areas, such as Baduria, Gobardanga, Taki, Basirhat, Bangaon and Habra surveys have revealed large percentage of people living in poverty. Several poverty alleviation schemes are under implementation mostly at the block level. North 24 Parganas district with a population density of 2,192 persons per square km, is third densest in West Bengal, after Kolkata and Howrah. The high density of population in the district is largely because of large scale migration of refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan, particularly in the period 1947 to 1955. In 2004, life expectancy at birth of a female was 71 years and that of a male was 66 years. With a literacy rate of 68.74% in 2001, the district was second only to Kolkata in the state in literacy. There are 6,139 habitations in the rural areas of North 24 Parganas. Out of these 2,331 habitations have primary schools within the villages and another 3,334 habitations have primary schools within 1 km. There are 474 habitations with primary schools beyond 1 km from the village. There were 258 high schools in the rural areas of the district.

Haroa CD Block had a population density of 1,195 persons per km². It was ranked 10 amongst the 22 CD Blocks for density of population in 2001. It had a literacy rate of 62.82%, ranking of 18. Male literacy rate was 71.66% and female literacy rate was 53.34%. Percentage distribution of main workers in Haroa CD Block was cultivators 22.58, agricultural labourer 30.11, household industry worker 3.78 and other workers 43.52 (non-agricultural, non-household). 33.73% of households in this CD Block lived below poverty line.

In the Haroa CD Block 25 villages (27.78%) had secondary schools but for 97.78% villages a college was more than 5 km away. Haroa had 5 high schools with 3,758 students and 109 teachers. It had 7 higher secondary schools with 2,379 students and 94 teachers.

In Haroa, one of the six CD Blocks in the Sundarban area, 62.22% of the villages had electricity for domestic use, 83.33% villages had paved approach roads, 67.78% villages had primary schools, 30.00% villages had maternity and child welfare centres, and 100% villages had drinking water. The tube well is the source of drinking water in 1,244 out of 1,572 villages in the district. In Haroa CD Block, 73 villages had tube wells for drinking water and 4 villages had tap water. Haroa CD Block had 322 km surfaced roads and 131 km unsurfaced roads.

North 24 Parganas is one of the leading districts in the formation and development of self-help groups. In Haroa there were 377 groups. The major activities done by these groups were animal husbandry, fishing, goat rearing, ari and jari work. Haroa CD Block had 3 health centres and 29 sub-centres.

Private Bus Routes

STA Bus Routes

CTC Bus Routes

Healthcare

Haroa block is one of the areas where ground water is affected by arsenic contamination.