Prolonged Deprivation Profiles of three Groups: A study in a Border Village of Cooch Behar, West Bengal

Level of deprivation was examined in three individual groups in a border village namely, Kalmati in Dinhata Block-II, District Cooch Behar, West Bengal, which is situated in Indo-Bangladesh border. The village has three distinct geographical features – Group- 1) hamlets inside village kalmati, Group- 2) hamlets ahead of fence in Kalmati but situated before Bangladesh border and Group- 3) hamlets situated in erstwhile Bangladesh Chhitmahalsin side Kalmati. The sample consists of 346 subjects. Out of which, 123 samples belong to Group-1, 103 belong to Group-2 and rest i.e. 120 samples belong to Group- 3. The individuals fail to organise from adequate resources of physical, social, mental and emotional support from their immediate environment and society at large. Prolonged deprivation from the said facilities affects adversely physical growth as well as mental health of three individual groups. This was measured by Prolonged Deprivation Scale (PDS). The 15 areas of deprivation of PDS were analysed. The profiles differ significantly in some of the cases. Though the percentage of higher level of deprivation is similar in three groups, percentages of lower levels of deprivation differ among each other.