Access to Schooling in Different Geographical Regions - A Case Study of South 24parganas District of West Bengal

India is a land of diverse geographical features with the second most populated country in the world. According to the Census of 2011, India has 158.8 million children in the age-group 0-6 years (total provisional population) and providing them with minimal education is the responsibility of the nation. The recent Right to Education Act (2009) declares to provide equal geographical and social access to elementary education to all children of the nation. The present study is an attempt to analyse the spatial distribution of primary and upper primary schools in different geographical regions and thereafter the cumulative effect of access on pupils enrolment. An Index of physical infrastructure has been done by applying Kendalls ranking method to find out the bivariate association between the infrastructure and enrolment. The study revealed that enrolment in primary section has increased enormously in the last few years. But these schools are not well equipped with infrastructure. The general trend of enrolment is high in well equipped schools. However, in some areas due to geographical barriers students cannot opt for better schools and they have to enrol in the nearby schools which may not have good infrastructural facilities.