1Research Scholar, Department of Geography, Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University, Vivekananda Street, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India
2Associate Professor and Head, Department of Geography, Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University Vivekananda Street Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India
The rural parts of the state of West Bengal, India lack proper healthcare facilities with a number of flaws in its healthcare system. The situation is quite poor in the study area i.e. Alipurduar district which is a forest endowed, an under-developed region of the state. The study tries to analyze the spatial distribution of healthcare facilities along with existing disparities in terms of rural healthcare infrastructure in order to identify the areas of deficiency in the region under study. To conduct this study, Composite Index has been formed to show the level of disparity among the blocks of the district. Results indicate that healthcare facilities are not equitably distributed throughout the district. These facilities are rare in isolated hilly and forest areas where most of the tribal people inhabited; both qualitatively weaker and quantitatively fewer in rural parts; and concentrated only in few urban pockets.
Health Care Facility, Infrastructure Gap, Composite Healthcare Infrastructure, Spatial Disparity
