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 Acknowledgement
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A large collective effort like this has many acknowledgements to make. The first one goes to Professor Bela Dutta Gupta, the first Chairperson of the Women’s Commission for setting up the Committee for preparing the report on the Changing Status of Women in West Bengal and the Department of Social Welfare, Women and Child Development for making the funds available. The major part of the acknowledgement goes to the task force coordinators and the drafting committee members, especially Dr Mukul Mukherjee, who offered us their unstinting support as labour of love. It is difficult to acknowledge their contribution fully.
The chapter on Demography was compiled in Sachetana Information Centre by Professor Nirmala Banerjee and Dr. Mukul Mukherjee with assistance from Smt. Rita Bose. The chapter on Health was coordinated and compiled by Maitreya Ghatak after initial consultation with Dr. Neena Das. The chapter on Education was coordinated and compiled in two parts. The section on School Education was done by me and the one on Higher and Technical Education was done by Professor Jaba Guha. For School Education I acknowledge gratefully Maitreya Ghatak’s help in compiling the tables. Smt. Ranjana Dasgupta assisted both the coordinators. There are two microstudies that are meant to be read in conjunction with this chapter.  The one on SC/ST Girls’ Participation in Teacher’s Training in West Bengal, was conducted by Sri Kamal Kumar Chatterjee with assistance from Dr. Dipali Nag. The one on Muslim Girl’s Education was conducted by Dr. Ratnabali Chattopadhyay with some initial input from Mrs. Saleq but with assistance from Ms. Saleha Begum, Smt. Swati Biswas, Prof. Uttara Chakraborty and Dr. Sarmistha Chakroborty. The chapter on Culture was co-ordinated by Professor Malini Bhattacharya and Dr. Nilanjana Gupta. This chapter needed a large number of assistants and the following students of Jadavpur University were part of this team: Arpita Guha Thakurta, Anshuman Bhowmick, Anindita Banerjee, Anindita Bose, Ellorashree Maitra, Kajori Aikat,  Moumita Das, Moupia Mukherjee, Mom Bhattacharya (Viswabharati), Nilanjana  Deb, Nandini Dhar, Riju Basu, Reshmi Sengupta, Sambit Saha, Sujata Neogi, Sonali Banerjee, Subrato Dutta. Abhijit Sen and Rumi Mukherjee helped the team with computer assistance. Special acknowledgement is made to the Folk and Tribal Cultural Centre, Government of West Bengal. The entire team is also acknowledged for the microstudy on the Women Folk Artists of Bengal that is presented as an adjunct of the chapter on Culture.
For the chapter on Economic Empowerment Dr. Ishita Mukhopadhyay was assisted by  Suratna Ganguly, Sayonti Roy, Anindita Ganguly, Jonaki Sengupta and a team of field workers. For the chapter on Political Participation Smt. Vidya Munshi was assisted by Smt. Nibedita Roy, Smt. Kamalika Mukherjee and very briefly, by Smt. Swagata Bhowmick. The Chapter on Law and Violence was coordinated by Smt. Manjari Gupta, Prof. Amit Sen, Chandreyi Alam and Dr. Ratnabali Chattopadhyay. Sri Balai Chandra Roy was consulted. Smt. Kalpana Sen rendered assistance to Dr. Ratnabali Chattopadhyay. Dr. Anuradha Chanda coordinated the chapter on Tribal Women and was assisted by Smt. Ranjana Dasgupta and Smt. Moumi Banerjee. Dr. Ratna Gupta and Sri Prasenjit Deb Barman of Cultural Research Institute,
West Bengal, have also been of great help.
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The survey on Women’s Status in Birbhum District was done by a team of scientists from ISI led by Dr. Atis Das Gupta. The team included Prof. T. J. Rao, Prof. Suraj Bandopadhyay, Prof. Debapriya Sengupta, Dr. Anjali Ghosh and Dr. Snigdha Chakraborty. Sri Rabindranath Jana, Dr. Anil Kumar Chaudhuri, Sri Dipankar Sen, Smt. Sonali Chakraborti, Smt. Susmita Bharati, Smt. Suparna Som, Sri Kamalaksha Das, Dr. Arun Chatterjee, Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya, Dr. Molly Chattopadhyay, Sri Ajay Ghosh, Sri Aniruddha Bhattacharya and Sri Shyamal Mukherjee (of the Sociological Research Unit, ISI) participated in various stages of data collection and analysis.
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Apart from the core group we look back with gratitude at the early discussions that set us on our feet. Out of this group, we lost Prof. Sunil Sen Gupta, one of the early formulators of the rights of the girl child in West Bengal. Mrs. Saleq and Sri Paramesh Acharya advised us on a few occasions. Sri Nripen Bandyopadhyay continues to give us unstinted support to this day. Smt. Anjusree Bhattacharya of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences helped us with the maps of West Bengal and Smt. Jhunu Ghosh provided us with useful information about women bank employees’ trade unions in the state. Â
The librarian of the West Bengal Commission for Women, Smt. Deeplekha Sen Gupta and the assistant librarian Smt. Subhra Bhadra generously shared their cramped space with the members of the core committee and acquired books and reports and kept us alive by providing tea and biscuits. Ms Ranjana Dasgupta rendered invaluable assistance to many of us. Ms Lopa Guha feeded the whole report in the computer and made it possible for all of us to make numerous changes as and when necessary.
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This report owes its final form to the meticulous editorial coordination of Smt. Sarmistha Dutta Gupta. Maitreya Ghatak has left his signature in too many places to be adequately acknowledged. Cut off from life prematurely in January 2003 while giving final touches to the chapter on Health, this text is dedicated to his memory.
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Status-report 
