Elections in forgotten India

Though it is in a state with the maximum density of population in the country, Purulia has no land shortage. There are vast stretches of it. Parched, barren earth, where just paddy grows. And lately, a bit of wheat. Or jungles where wild animals roam and people live off the forest.

There are some sponge iron factories, which have given rise to a number of environmental problems. And horror stories -- of hunger and water scarcity.

"Earlier (before the Communist Party of India-Marxist came to power in 1977) there was nothing. Now, at least, people eat un-starched rice twice a day," says Srinivas Mahato, 39, a CPI-M worker. "Now people get patta work (government land given to landless farmers to work on). Irrigation is the main problem. If we can get another crop going, things will be better," he adds.

Even to city slickers immunised to poverty, some of interior Purulia's sights and sounds are too disturbing. The CPI-M workers and members insist there has been a revolution in the district: that many people are wearing slippers, that there has been an explosion of bicycles in the villages. That even the remotest hamlet has a tube well.

But Purulia remains the second-most backward of the 18 districts of West Bengal.

Also See:
Rediff's Assembly Elections Blog