Burdwan district of West Bengal is spread over an area of 7024 sq. kms.  The district lies between the Ajay and Bhagirathi or Hugli rivers. It is bounded on the north by the Dumka of Bihar, Birbhum and Murshidabad districts, on the east by Nadia; on the south by Hugli and Bankura, and on the west by Dhanbad district of Bihar. The natural boundaries formed by the rivers to the north, east and south are fairly constant and there have been no major changes over the period. Headquarters of the district is Barddhaman.

The district has a population of 6.05 million (1991 census). Overall, there were 898 females per 1000 males. The Scheduled caste and scheduled Tribe contributed about 27.5% and 6.2% of the population respectively. About 65% of the population was living in the rural area. The decennial growth rate between 1981 and 1991 was 23.6%. The density of the population was 851 per sq. kms. Bengali, and Hindi are the main language spoken in the district.

The district is at present comprises of 31 Community Development Blocks, 61 towns and 2588 villages (table 1).

Amenities available in the villages are shown in table 2.

Main rivers of the district are Ajay. Bhagirathi or Hugli, Damodar and Barakar. In the district 30,949 hectares of the total land are covered by forest. These forest areas are broadly classified into Reserved Forests, Protected forests and unclassified state forests and lands. The district Burdwan has the pride of having as many as 107 coalmines within its jurisdiction. The coals are being mined in Raniganj Coalfield since the year 1800. There are vast reserves of superior non-coking and inferior quality coals in these areas. Raniganj coalfield also contains large reserves of iron ore occurring chiefly as nodules. Good quality fire clay occurs in the Barakar stage of the Raniganj coalfield. Besides, the fire clays, various other types of useful clays occur at several places in the Raniganj coalfield belt, of which, the pottery clays of the Ronei and the light coloured brick clays of Durgapur deserved special mention.

Table 1.  Administrative Units in District

Number (with percentage) of villages having one or more amenities in the district as per 1991 census is given below:

Table 2.  Villages having one or more amenities in the district (1991 census)

The district is well connected by rail and road. The district headquarters Burdwan is connected by rail and road with the state headquarters Calcutta. The district head­quarters and the subdivision headquarters Asansol—both are railway junctions. The main line of Eastern Railway traverses the district. The Grand Trunk Road passes through the district from Calcutta. The road traverses the district of 160 kilometers running parallel with the Eastern Railway main line.

The district Burdwan is predo­minantly an agricultural district, which is properly known as the granary of West Bengal. Majority of the workers of the district depends on agriculture (i.e. cultivators and agricultural labourers).  The principal commodity for trade in the district is rice. Rice is exported from the district to other districts of the state.

The district has a very good network of Irrigation facilities. The main sources of irrigation are Government canals, tanks, wells and tubewells. The Mayurakshi canals—a major irrigation project, covered an area of 15081 hectares in the district. 254657 hectares of land are irrigated by Damodar Valley Barrage—another major irrigation project of the state.

Main livestock of the district are cattle, buffaloes, sheep and pigs apart from poultry. A number of veterinary institutions are functioning in rural as well as urban areas of the district.

The Asansol subdivision of the district is one of the major industrial regions in the state of West Bengal. The most important of which is Durgapur, which has been built up as an industrial complex of the state. A large number of large sized industries have come up in the Durgapur township. Besides, three important steel works are found at Kulu, Hirapur and Burnpur. Likewise, locomotive works at Chittaranjan, a big alluminium works at J.K. Nagar, a large paper mill at Raniganj are the important industries that deserve mention.

The number of Higher Secondary/PUC institutions per ten thousand population in the urban area is 0.65. The highest number of such institutions per ten thousand population comes to 1.49 in Chak  Bankola while the lowest is in Kulti with 0.24. The number of Secondary school per ten thousand population for the entire district is 1.05. The district figures for Junior Secondary/Middle and Primary institutions per ten thousand population in the urban sectors of the district are 1.35 and 4.17 respectively.

Of the 49 towns of the district, only 19 towns have the privilege of having the medical institutions with bed. Number of beds in medical institutions per 1000 population comes to 3.42 at the district level. Town wise, the highest number of beds per 1000 population is noticed in Burnpur town (14.69). The second position in respect of the beds in medical institutions goes to Burdwan (3.76).

The National Surveillance Programme for Communicable Diseases (NSPCD) was launched in the district in the year2001.  District Nodal Officer had been identified.  District RRT is yet to be constituted and trained. 

National Surveillance Programme for Communicable Diseases

Bardhaman district in West Bengal was included as a district under NSPCD in 2000-2001. The district Nodal Officer for the programme was identified. The district RRT has been formed. Once the State RRT is trained at NICD, the district RRT will be trained at Kolkata. The district Laboratory has been identified. The programme will start functioning once the training of the district RRT is complete. The laboratory needs strengthening. Weekly and monthly data is expected only after the implementation of the programme.