Akalpoush - A Brief Profile

Akalpoush is a village located about 13 km from Kalna, the nearest town from the village panchayat. The village panchayat is common for 19 neighbouring villages. The village comes under the jurisdiction of Kalna II Community Development Block, an administrative division in the Kalna Subdivision of Bardhaman district. The block headquarters are situated at Singarkone.

If folklore is to be believed, the village was named so because of an untimely (akal) famine in the Indian calendar month of Pausha ("akal Pausha"). We reached there by road taking the Kalna Express Highway and reached Akalpoush from Kalna in a battery operated auto. Other ways to reach the village are by train, getting off at Bainchi station or Kalna, and then using state buses to go to the village.

There we met the Panchayat Pradhan, Smt Atoshi Ghose, and Shri Tirtho Ghosh, Panchayat Sanchalok, who were very cordial and gave us a brief overview of the village. We undertook the transect walk with the villagers to get to know them better.

There is a post office, panchayat, school with classes up to X, called Arabindo Prakash Ghosh Uccha Vidyalaya, a library named Nagendranath Smriti Pathagar, and a Primary Health Centre in the village.

A Customer Service Point (CSP) has been set up by State Bank of India, ADB Kalna, and operated by Shri Subhashish Chatterjee, to facilitate rendering of basic banking services to residents of Akalpoush. The CSP allows opening of savings bank accounts and deposits and withdrawals pertaining to the savings accounts within the specified monetary limit of ₹10,000 per day per account holder.

The Panchayat Sanchalak, Shri Tirtho Ghosh, and Secretary, Shri Debashish Mukherjee, informed us that the population of the village is about 2200, including minors. Almost everyone has a bank account but the banks are located at distances of 5 and 9 km. They expressed their desire to have a bank set up within the village. They even have the brick and mortar facility to house a bank, located centrally in the village. This would eliminate the problems of many children and the elderly from visiting the bank on a regular basis.

Most people use the post office for their savings and to withdraw their government subsidies like the Old Age Pension, 80+ pension, and disability grants. Scholarships are channelled through the bank accounts.

The economy is stable and there are not many migrant workers. There is only moderate outflow of workers to other states like Kerala, Goa, and the Andamans. But most workers remit their earnings back to their relatives and, thus, contribute to the growth of the village.

Most of the residents are involved in agriculture; however, of late, the trends are changing. Presence of good educational infrastructure in Bardhaman and the nearby Hoogly district has resulted in an outflux of younger residents toward formal job opportunities present in Kolkata. The trend of pursuing traditional economic activities are changing.

The various business clusters include farmers, fish rearers, weavers, artisans, and micro enterprises.

#rural #unbanked