Social,
Environmental & Economic Sustainability
Our analysis of the rank of the district
Backwardness : 240
Sex Ratio Rank : 372
(Rank one is least sex ratio - Cenus 2001)
HIV Category District : B
(HIV Sentinel Surveillance 2004 - 2006)
Disability : Joint - 1 (Census 2001)
Literacy Ratio : 124 (Census 2001)
Minority : Does not figure in MCD
Challenges of the district : Our research with local communities
Lack of vocational training facilities in one of
the key issues of our district.
We need to have more focus on the lower group for their empowerment
and economic development.
We need to provide literacy even to the commercial sex workers
as majority of them are illiterate. This is one of the reasons
why they are not much aware about health and sanitation. The other
problem faced by the CSW children is of getting educated in the
same school as normal kids. Without education one cannot think
of getting them empowered. In our district there are very few
NGOs which are focused on the development of women, children and
downtrodden
Brief About East Midnapore District
Midnapore East or Purba Medinipur is one of the districts of the
state of West Bengal, India. It was formed on January 1, 2002
after the Partition of Midnapore into Purba Medinipur and Paschim
Medinipur. The district has 4 sub-divisions: Tamluk, Contai, Egra
and Haldia. Tamluk is the district headquarters of Purba Medinipur.
Though there is some controversy, scholars have generally agreed
that present day Tamluk is the site of the ancient city variously
known as Tamralipta or Tamralipti. The present town is located
on the banks of the Rupnarayan River close to the Bay of Bengal
Origin of the Name Tamluk
According to some scholars Tamluk derives its name from the Sanskrit
word Tamra Lipta meaning "Full of Copper".
Tamralipta (Tamluk), lower down the river Hooghly
and sea port, had been an important waterway for more than 3000
years. It gets its name from the copper which was mined, as it
is even now, at Ghatsila, Jharkhand, Orissa areas which are not
far from the city. Copper had been eclipsed by iron around 100
B.C., so the name must have originated during the Copper Age,
when Tamralipti exported the ore and metal to peninsular India;
the alternative was the less accessible Rajasthan area. The longer,
original name of the port was in use till the third century B.C.,
when Ashoka's daughter and son sailed from it for Sri Lanka.
According to local folklore the name Tamralipta
came from the King Tamradhwaja (which means The King with Copper
Flag/symbol) of the Mayura-Dhwaja (Peacock) dynasty. If you go
according to Mahabharat's description the ruling period of the
King Tamradhwaja is nearer to the end of the Copper Age. Probably
this ancient king had a huge base of copper, and the metal brought
prosperity to the region at his time. Thus both of the names --
Tamralipta and Raja Tamradhawja -- might have been originated
from it.
Some early Vaisnav religious texts tell a fascinating
story about the origin of the name of Tamralipta. Once, when Lord
Krishna was playing Maharaas in Vraj at Vrindavan Surya (Sun God)
Dev rose from the east and accidentally saw Lord Krishna in intimate
situation with his Gopis and Sri Radhika. Immediately Surya Dev
had felt ashamed, became embarrassed and blushed a reddish copper
colour like Tamra. And then Surya Dev again returned to the same
corner of the east coast of Bharata and did hide (Lipta) himself
in the Bay of Bengal. Where Surya Dev went back and hid himself
is the place called Tamralipt
History of Tamluk
This ancient port city and kingdom was bounded by the Bay of Bengal
in the south, river Rupnarayana in the east and Subarnarekha in
the west. The Rupnarayana is the joint flow of the river Dwarkeshwar
and the river Shilai. The Bay of Bengal and these great rivers
and their numerous branches created a prosperous and easy water
navigational system fostering commerce, culture and early contacts
with the people outside the region. At the same time, these rivers
helped to develop the agriculture in this region.
History tells us that the rivers have been central
to urban settlement and development in the subcontinent from the
ancient period. The Indus and the Ganges were cradles of ancient
civilization. Tamluk was a civilisation based on Bay of Bengal
and river Rupnarayana. And the most important natural resource
of this area was water from the rivers and sea.
Archaeological remains show continuous settlement
from about 3rd century BC. It was known as Tramralipti (in the
Purans and the Mahabharata) or Tamralipta (in Mahabharata) or
Tamalika (in historical documents) or Tamalitti (in foreigners'
descriptions) or Tamoluk (in the British Raj). It was a seaport,
now buried under river silt. For this reason, Tamluk has many
ponds and lakes remaining today.
In the Mahabharata (Bhishma Parba/Nabam Adhyay)
while describing the names of the holiest rivers and kingdoms
of India, Sanjay took the name of "Tramralipta" to Dhritarastra.
Tamluk was also known as Bhivas (in religious texts)
and Madhya Desh (as the Middle State of Utkal/Kalinga and Banga).
According to Jain sources, Tamralipti was the capital
of the kingdom of Venga and was long known as a port
