Joypur, Purulia (community development block)

Joypur is a community development block (CD block) that forms an administrative division in the Jhalda subdivision of the Purulia district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

History

Background

The ''Jaina Bhagavati-Sutra'' of the 5th century AD mentions that Purulia was one of the sixteen mahajanapadas and was a part of the kingdom known as Vajra-bhumi in ancient times. In 1833, the Manbhum district was carved out of the Jungle Mahals district, with headquarters at Manbazar. In 1838, the headquarters was transferred to Purulia. After independence, when Manbhum district was a part of Bihar, efforts were made to impose Hindi on the Bengali-speaking majority of the district and it led to the Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum). In 1956, the Manbhum district was partitioned between Bihar and West Bengal under the States Reorganization Act and the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act 1956.

Red corridor

106 districts spanning 10 states across India, described as being part of the left wing extremism activities, constitutes the Red corridor. In West Bengal the districts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura, Purulia and Birbhum are part of the Red corridor. However, as of July 2016, there had been no reported incidents of Maoist related activities from these districts for the previous 4 years.

The CPI (Maoist) extremism affected CD blocks in Purulia district were: Jhalda I, Jhalda II, Arsha, Baghmundi, Balarampur, Barabazar, Manbazar II and Bandwan. Certain reports also included the Manbazar I and Joypur CD blocks and some times indicted the whole of the Purulia district.

The Lalgarh movement, which started attracting attention after the failed assassination attempt on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, then chief minister of West Bengal, in the Salboni area of the Paschim Medinipur district, on 2 November 2008 and the police action that followed, had also spread over to these areas. The movement was not just a political struggle but an armed struggle that concurrently took the look of a social struggle. A large number of CPI (M) activists were killed. Although the epi-centre of the movement was Lalgarh, it was spread across 19 police stations in three adjoining districts – Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia, all thickly forested and near the border with Jharkhand. The deployment of the CRPF and other forces started on 11 June 2009. The movement came to an end after the 2011 state assembly elections and change of government in West Bengal. The death of Kishenji, the Maoist commander, on 24 November 2011, was the last major landmark.

Geography

Joypur is located at .

The Joypur CD block is bounded by the Chas CD block, in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand, on the north and a part of the east, the Purulia I CD block, on the east, the Arsha CD block on the south and the Jhalda II CD block and the Kasmar and Jaridih CD blocks, in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand, on the west.

The Joypur CD block is located in the western part of the district. The Kangsabati River forms the boundary between the Joypur and Arsha CD blocks. The upper Kangsabati basin has undulating land and the elevation rises from 200 to 300 m and the general slope is from west to east and south-east.

The Joypur CD block has an area of 230.47 km². It has 1 panchayat samity, 7 gram panchayats, 90 gram sansads (village councils), 113 mouzas, 109 inhabited villages and 1 census town. Joypur police station serves this block. Headquarters of this CD block is at Joypur.

Gram panchayats of the Joypur CD block/panchayat samiti are: Baragram, Ghagra, Joypur, Mukundapur, Ropo, Sidhi-Jamra and Upar-Kahan.

Demographics

Population

According to the 2011 Census of India, the Joypur CD block had a total population of 133,349, of which 123,090 were rural and 10,259 were urban. There were 68,977 (52%) males and 64,372 (48%) females. There were 21,079 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The Scheduled Castes numbered 19,162 (14.37%) and the Scheduled Tribes numbered 13,074 (9.80%).

According to the 2001 census, the Joypur CD block had a total population of 111,715, out of which 58,132 were males and 53,583 were females. The Joypur block registered a population growth of 17.97 per cent during the 1991-2001 decade. Decadal growth for Purulia district was 13.96 per cent. Decadal growth in West Bengal was 17.84 per cent.

Census towns in the Joypur CD block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Joypur (10,259).

Large villages (with 4,000+ population) in the Joypur CD block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Sidhi (4,665) and Barbenda (5,107).

Other villages in the Joypur CD block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Mukundpur (2,076), Baragram (2,811), Rop (3,340), Jamra (1,591), Gaghra (1,993) and Upar Kahan (2,960).

Literacy

According to the 2011 census, the total number of literate persons in the Joypur CD block was 65,044 (57.94% of the population over 6 years) out of which males numbered 41,848 (72.06% of the male population over 6 years) and females numbered 23,196 (42.80% of the female population over 6 years). The gender disparity (the difference between female and male literacy rates) was 29.26%.

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

Language and religion

In the 2001 census, Bengali was the mother tongue for 76.6% of the population of the district, followed by Santali 11.4%, Kurmali Thar 7.7%, Hindi 1.9%, Urdu