Rajarhat is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Bidhannagar subdivision[1] of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

[2] Rajarhat CD Block is part of the North Hooghly Flat, one of the three physiographic regions in the district located in the lower Ganges Delta.

It is a raised alluvium area along the Hooghly, which forms the western boundary of the district.

[3] Rajarhat CD Block has an area of 72.90 km2(according to 2011 census, including Mahisbathan II).

[8] Large villages in Rajarhat CD Block (2011 census figures in brackets): Thakdari (4,247), Mahisgot (7,224), Tarulia (4,278), Mahammadpur (4,141), Chakpachuria (5,024), Baligari (4,193), Patharghata (8,039) and Bagdobamachhi Bhanga (4,483).

[8] North 24 Parganas district is densely populated, mainly because of the influx of refugees from East Pakistan (later Bangladesh).

In the 2011 census Hindus numbered 112,824 and formed 59.41% of the population in Rajarhat CD Block.

[23] 22.60% of households in Rajarhat CD Block lived below poverty line in 2001, against an average of 29.28% in North 24 Parganas district.

[25] In more than 30 percent of the villages in North 24 Parganas, agriculture or household industry is no longer the major source of livelihood for the main workers there.

It includes factory, mining, plantation, transport and office workers, those engaged in business and commerce, teachers, entertainment artistes and so on.

[27] There are 30 inhabited villages in Rajarhat CD Block, as per the District Census Handbook: North 24 Parganas.

23 villages (76.67%) have telephones (including landlines, public call offices and mobile phones).

[28] The North 24 Parganas district Human Development Report opines that in spite of agricultural productivity in North 24 Parganas district being rather impressive 81.84% of rural population suffered from shortage of food.

With a high urbanisation of 54.3% in 2001, the land use pattern in the district is changing quite fast and the area under cultivation is declining.

In 2010-11, persons engaged in agriculture in Rajarhat CD Block could be classified as follows: bargadars 1,781 (11.86%), patta (document) holders 2,113 (14.08%), small farmers (possessing land between 1 and 2 hectares) 10 (0.07%), marginal farmers (possessing land up to 1 hectare) 3,890 (25.91%) and agricultural labourers 7,217 (48.08%).

[31] In 2010-11, the net area under effective pisciculture in Rajarhat CD Block was 1,197.91 hectares.