Gopalganj district, India

Gopalganj is one of the administrative districts in the Indian state of Bihar. The district headquarters is the town of Gopalganj, and the district is part of Saran Division.^[1] Major languages spoken are Hindi and Bhojpuri.

Gopalganj district
District of Bihar
Exterior of Thawe Mandir
Location of Gopalganj district in Bihar
Coordinates (Gopalganj, Bihar|Gopalganj): 26.4654°N 84.4416°E / 26.4654; 84.4416
Country	India
State	Bihar
Division	Saran
Headquarters	Gopalganj
Government
• Lok Sabha constituencies	Gopalganj
• Vidhan Sabha constituencies	Baikunthpur, Barauli, Gopalganj, Kuchaikote, Bhore, Hathua
Area
• Total	2,033 km2 (785 sq mi)
• Rank	26th in the state of Bihar
Population  (2011)
• Total	2,562,012
• Density	1,260/km2 (3,300/sq mi)
Demographics
• Literacy	65.47%
• Sex ratio	1021
Time zone	UTC+05:30 (IST)
Vehicle registration	BR-28
Major highways	NH-28
Website	gopalganj.nic.in

Geography

Gopalganj district, India occupies an area of 2,033 square kilometres (785 sq mi),^[2] comparatively equivalent to Spain's Tenerife Island.^[3]

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1901	628,381	—
1911	597,141	−0.51%
1921	610,307	+0.22%
1931	648,526	+0.61%
1941	746,012	+1.41%
1951	822,854	+0.99%
1961	926,736	+1.20%
1971	1,107,464	+1.80%
1981	1,362,123	+2.09%
1991	1,704,310	+2.27%
2001	2,152,638	+2.36%
2011	2,562,012	+1.76%
source:[4]

Religions in Gopalganj district (2011)[5]
Religion			Percent
Hinduism			82.72%
Islam			17.02%
Other or not stated			0.26%

According to the 2011 census Gopalganj district, India had a population of 2,562,012,^[6] roughly equal to the nation of Kuwait^[7] or the US state of Nevada.^[8] of which 1,267,666 are males while 1,294,346 are females. This gives it a ranking of 163rd in India (out of a total of 640).^[6] Population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 449,530 which is 17.54% of total population of Gopalganj district.^[6] The district had a population density of 1,260 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,300/sq mi).^[6] Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 19.02%.^[6] Gopalganj had a literacy rate of 65.47% and sex ratio of 1021 females for every 1000 males, Gopalganj ranks first in terms of sex-ratio (1,021) against the state's 918. 6.35% of the population lives in urban areas. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 320,064 (12.49%) and 60,807 (2.37%) respectively. Gopalganj district had 411,930 households in 2011.^[6]

Languages of Gopalganj district (2011)^[9]

1. Bhojpuri (96.1%)
2. Hindi (1.85%)
3. Urdu (1.76%)

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 96.09% of the population in the district spoke Bhojpuri, 1.85% Hindi and 1.76% Urdu as their first language.^[10]

Based on the 2011 census:

• Population: 2,562,012 (2.62% of the state)^[11]
• Density of population: 1260
• Men: 1,267,666 (49.48%)^[12]
• Women: 1,294,346 (50.52%)
• Urban population: 162,805 (6.35%)
• Rural population: 2,399,207 (93.65%)
• % of Scheduled castes: 12.49%^[13]
• % of Scheduled tribes: 2.37%^[13]

Politics

This section is transcluded from 17th Bihar Assembly. (edit | history)

District	No.	Constituency	Name	Party		Alliance		Remarks
Gopalganj	99	Baikunthpur	Prem Shankar Yadav		RJD		MGB
	100	Barauli	Rampravesh Rai		BJP		NDA
	101	Gopalganj	Subhash Singh		BJP		NDA	Death of Subhash Singh[14]
			Kusum Devi					Won in 2022 bypoll
	102	Kuchaikote	Amrendra Kumar Pandey		JD(U)		NDA
	103	Bhore	Sunil Kumar		JD(U)		NDA
	104	Hathua	Rajesh Kumar Singh		RJD		MGB

Administrative Division

Gopalganj is divided into 2 sub-divisions, 14 Blocks, 4 municipalities^[15] and 234 Gram Panchayats (village councils).

Subdivision	CD Block	Hindi name	Area (KM2)	Population (2011)
2	14	१४	2,033	2,562,012
Gopalganj	Baikunthpur	बैकुंठपुर	204.11	217,165
	Barauli	बरौली	184.38	263,876
	Gopalganj	गोपालगंज	195.47	219,527
	Kuchaikote	कुचायकोट	251.43	332,041
	Manjha	मांझा	141.47	199,452
	Thawe	थावे	69.99	116,106
	Sidhwaliya	सिधवलिया	120.13	141,563
Hathua	Bhorey	भोरे	147.73	178,199
	Hathua	हथुआ	146.65	221,804
	Kateya	कटेया	126.17	130,830
	Panchdewari	पंचदेवरी	92.82	99,933
	Phulwariya	फुलवरिया	95.56	130,801
	Uchkagaon	ऊँचकागांव	113.29	177,677
	Vijayipur	विजयीपुर	130.40	133,038

Urban councils

There are 4 urban areas in Gopalganj district. 3 Nagar Panchayat and 1 Nagar Parishad. Although Hathua is also an urban area categorized as Census town but not counted as municipality.

Urban council	Council's type	Hindi name	part of (Block)	Area (KM²)	Population (2011)
Gopalganj	Nagar Parishad	गोपालगंज	Gopalganj	11.11	67,339
Kataiya	Nagar Panchayat	कटैया	Kataiya	12.06	20,193
Mirganj	Nagar Panchayat	मीरगंज	Unchkagaon	5.48	26,240
Barauli	Nagar Panchayat	बरौली	Barauli	22.21	41877

Village councils

There are 234 Gram Panchayats in Gopalganj district grouped into 14 blocks. There are a total of 1566 villages in Gopalganj District. There are 169 uninhabited villages (out of 1,566 total villages) in the district of Gopalganj.^[16]

Constituencies

Vidhan Sabha Constituencies

1. Baikunthpur^[17]
2. Barauli
3. Gopalganj
4. Kuchaikote
5. Bhore
6. Hathua

Lok Sabha constituencies

1. Gopalganj

Education

Initially, Gopalganj had little to offer in terms of good quality education to its residents. Presently Schools and colleges in the city are either run by the government or by private trusts and individuals. The schools are each affiliated with either the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), or the Bihar School Examination Board.^[18] English is the medium of instruction in most private schools; though government run schools offer both English and Hindi. The Sainik School prepares boys for entry into the National Defence Academy. After completing their secondary education, which involves ten years of schooling, students typically enroll at Higher Secondary School in one of the three streams—Arts, Commerce or Science. Imperial Public School (located in Hathwa) and DAV Thawe are the two best CBSE affiliated Schools along with Sainik School, providing quality education upto higher secondary level. One Government Engineering college And two Government polytechnic colleges started recently. Government teacher training college, para medical college and Govt ITI colleges setup recently. The Bihar Government announce that the new medical college and hospital will be located in Gopalganj.

Economy

Gopalganj district is famous for sugar industries. Now three Sugar factories are in running position situated in Sasamusa, Gopalganj City and Sidhwaliya. Two grain and sugar cane based ethanol plants recently started their production. Many rice mills, milk packaging plants, mustard oil plants, flour mills, cattle seeds plants, ply factory, egg layer firms, cement bricks plants and many more small scale industries are operational in district. Maximum people depends on agriculture mainly paddy, wheat, sugarcane and vegetables. Government has allotted industrial area in Gopalganj districts in which many factories are coming in next coming years. Gopalganj is at the top in Bihar and ranked among the ten highest districts in India among foreign exchanged currency because many people go to the Gulf countries through the district such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait and Yemen. Gopalganj is among top ten in per capita income in 38 Districts of Bihar, ranked 7 last year ranked by Niti Ayog.

Transport

NH 28 passes through Gopalganj one can find the multiple buses for commuting in state and other state.

Siwan Junction railway station is the main railway station for Gopalganj. Thawe station also serves local passenger other small station: Hathua Road, Sasamusa, Sipaya-(Serves Kuchaikote, Khutwania, Dubey Khariya, Vinod Khariya and nearby Villages), Tamkuhi Road and Gopalganj railway station. Now Thawe to Lucknow,thawe to taranagar and thawe to patna,thawe to gorakhapur train started.

Sabeya Airport, Jay Prakash Narayan Airport Patna and Mahayogi Gorakhnath Airport, Gorakhpur are the nearest commercial airports. Sabeya Airport is now including in government UDAN scheme. Some preliminary paperwork and mapping of the airport area has started, and boundary identification will start.

Notable people

• Ram Dulari Sinha of Indian National Congress, freedom fighter, former Union-Minister and Former Governor of Kerala, and freedom fighter, first Women to attain master's degree from Bihar and the first woman from Bihar to become Governor
• Kamla Rai was Freedom Fighter and two times MLA of Gopalganj in 1952 and 1957. He was the first Chairman of Saran District Board in 1947. He was the Founder of Kamla Rai College, Gopalganj
• Gorakh Rai was Freedom Fighter and renowned Politician.He was MLA from Barauni constituency in 1962
• Mukesh Kumar (cricketer)
• Abdul Ghafoor, former Chief Minister of Bihar, 1973 to 1975
• Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Chief Minister of Bihar and former Rail Minister of India
• Rabri Devi, 1st woman chief minister of bihar
• U. K. Sinha, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India
• Anurag Kumar, Director, IISc.
• Pankaj Tripathi, actor
• Alok Kumar Suman, MP
• Subhash Singh (politician), Politician.
• Janak Ram, Politician.
• Amrendra Kumar Pandey, Politician.
• Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava, Politician
• Nagina Rai, Member of parliament from Gopalganj Lok Sabha.
• Avinash Tiwary, Actor
• Balraj Arpit, Former International Youth Representative of India at United Nations | Computer Scientist | Entrepreneur