After Independence different poverty alleviation programme has been launched by State and Centre in West Bengal (WB) to provide concrete soil under the feet of rural poor. Political parties on Govt. seat preach their successful tale of achievement regarding the fact through development reports and statistics. But the ground reality can tell the fact itself. For once the most preferable place of colonialism, West Bengal does not progress so much and the story can be told by its unfit infrastructure of industry, overwhelming dependency on agriculture, mass illiteracy and poverty in rural areas, female participation in noneconomic activities etc. Although the rate of agricultural production may be substantially flourished but WB is still suffering from illness induced by poverty. The villages work as hubs to generate bulk of agricultural products but still poverty is haunting around there. Therefore the issue is the lack of proper direction of development. The central premise of this paper would analyse the effects of poverty alleviation programmes in rural WB and also provide a model plan, through the concept of ‘Village Complex’. The district of Uttar Dinajpur (North Dinajpur) has been chosen as sample because of two reasons-i) it is one of the very backward district in WB, ii) the number of people dwelling rural areas is substantially high in this district.
Poverty and Poverty Alleviation, West Bengal (WB), Uttar Dinajpur (UD), Rural Development, Village Complex
