Sandeshkhali

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?Sandeshkhali West Bengal • India
Sandeshkhali
Coordinates: 22°22′N 88°54′E / 22.36, 88.9
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Area • Elevation	• 5 m (16 ft)
District(s)	North 24 Parganas
Population • Sex ratio	276,693 (2001) • 948
Codes • Pincode	• 743446

Coordinates: 22°22′N 88°54′E / 22.36, 88.9 Sandeshkhali (Bengali: সন্দেশখালি) is a town with a police station, a community development block, and an assembly constituency in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sandeshkhali is considered a gateway to the Sundarbans. The area faces some challenges, as for example, trafficking in girls and use of non-conventional source of power.

1 Geography
2 Administration
- 2.1 Crime
3 Demographics
4 Economy
- 4.1 Power
- 4.2 Micro-credit
5 Politics
6 Health
7 References
8 See also

[edit] Geography

Sandeshkhali is located at 22.36° N 88.90° E^[1]

The area is full of creeks and swamps in the deltaic region of southern Bengal. The wide Dalma and Besti rivers flow through the area.

[edit] Administration

Sandeshkhali I and II are intermediate panchayat (local self government) under North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad. Village panchayats under Sandeshkhali I and II intermediate panchayat are: Bayermari I and II, Hatgachhi, Kalinagar, Nazat I and II, Sarberia Agarhati, Sahera Radhanagar, Bermajur I and II, Durgamandop, Jeliakhali, Khulna, Korakati, Manipur, and Sandeshkhali.^[2]

[edit] Crime

Sandeshkhali and its surrounding areas are known for “notorious activities and incidents of common people being attacked and robbed by pirates frequently”. Some localities close to Sundarbans have been found vulnerable to women trafficking. More than 100 women from this region get trafficked to red-light areas in Mumbai and Pune each year.^[3] Over the period 2002 – 2007, Sandeshkhali has reported hundreds of missing boys and girls. Most affected families have not registered cases, as they feel the police will not be of much help. Many keep on hoping that their children will return someday. ^[4]

”Save The Children”, a self-help group run by a non-governmental organisation has done yeomen service in the area. They started motivating the trafficking agents. The focal point was talk about their own daughters and children. The risk involved in this illegal business was highlighted. That seemed to work and they were assured of their source of living once they quit the profession. They vowed to do away with the scourge of trafficking from their village and started motivating fellow villagers as well as other agents.^[5]

The Hungry Tide
In the beginning…there was nothing but forests here. There were no people, no embankments, no fields. Just kada and bada, mud and mangrove. At high tide most of the land vanished under water. And everywhere you looked there were predators – tigers, crocodiles, sharks, leopards…This was a time when people were so desperate for the land that they were willing to sell themselves for a bigha or two.^[6]
Amitav Ghosh

[edit] Demographics

Sandeshkhali has two community development blocks.

Sandeshkhali I
In the 2001 census, Sandeshkhali I community development block had a population of 140,446 out of which 71,912 were males and 68,534 were females.^[7]

Sandeshkhali II
In the 2001 census, Sandeshkhali II community development block had a population of 136,247 out of which 70,114 were males and 66,133 were females.^[7]

[edit] Economy

[edit] Power

The remote villages and hamlets situated in the area suffer from chronic shortage of energy due to non-availability of grid power. It is extremely difficult to extend high voltage transmission lines because of technical limitations in an area with inhospitable terrain and prohibitive cost. A scheme is being formulated to cover about 750,000 people in the difficult areas of Sundarbans with non-conventional energy power within the year 2012. The scheme covers Gosaba, Sagar, Pathar Pratima, Namkhana, Kultali, Hingalganj and Sandeshkhali.^[8]

[edit] Micro-credit

Micro credit is serving as an effective tool of economic emancipation of women, empowering them to fight against many social evils and the age-old atrocities in the villages. A NGO, in collaboration with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has established 470 self-help groups with 6580 members spread over 400 villages. SHG members of Sandeshkhali raised Rs.40,000/-loan from Bank of Baroda to start a poultry farm.^[9]

[edit] Politics

In the 2006 assembly elections, Abani Roy of CPI(M) won the Sandeshkhali (SC) seat defeating his nearest rival Gita Mondal of AITC. Kanti Biswas of CPI(M) defeated Ranjit Kumar Das of AITC/ INC in 2001 and 1996. Kumud Ranjan Biswas of CPI(M) defeated Ranjit Kumar Das of INC in 1987 and 1977, and Ananata Kumar Bera of INC in 1982. ^[10]

Sandeshkhali is part of Joynagar (Lok Sabha constituency).^[11]

[edit] Health

Although in North 24 Parganas district groundwater is affected by arsenic contamination, tubewells in Sandeshkhali II block are arsenic safe according to Indian standard (50µg/L) and in Sandeshkhali I block only 0.6% tubewells exceed 50µg/L. The probable reason may be, in Sandeshkhali, most of the tubewells are deep tubewells. Shallow tubewells are saline, so people do not construct shallow tubewells.^[12] A study of iodine deficiency disorder amongst children found that prevalence of goitre amongst school children was very high at Sandeshkhali.^[13]

Four launches with doctors carrying medicines, sophisticated portable X-ray and echo-cardiograph machines, provided by the French author Dominique Lapierre move along the waterways of the Sundarbans to its furthest corners. Residents of such places as Sandeshkhali, Basanti, Gosaba and Kultali have felicitated him when he came in 2004. ^[14]