| Voice of East Midnapore
: Dipak Acharya
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
East Midnapore
District
Area, Population & Sex Ratio
Geographical Area : Km2
Population in East Medinipur (Census 2011)
Under 6 population
Total : 565759
Male : 291899
Female : 273860
Rank ( VoiceOfBharat.org Analysis
)
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
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
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