Bijepur is a block and a

Notified Area Council A nagar panchayat () or town panchayat or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,00 ...

(NAC) in

Bargarh district Bargarh District is an administrative district of Odisha state in eastern India. The city of Bargarh is its district headquarters. The district was carved out of the erstwhile district of Sambalpur on 1 April 1993. History In ancient times ...

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is one of the 147 Vidhan Sabha constituencies of

Geography

Bijepur sits at an average elevation of above sea level. It is situated in Padampur sub-division and about south-east of

Bargarh Bargarh is one of the major towns of Western Odisha and a municipality in Bargarh district in the state of Odisha in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Bargarh District and an important town of Odisha because it is known as the ...

town. The area is populated with . Bijepur zamidar house

Demographics

As of India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2011, Bijepur had a population of 11,827. Females constitute 50% of the population. Bijepur has an average literacy rate of 85.45%, more than the national average of 59.5%. The local language of Bijepur is Sambalpuri (Kosali). The major communities of Bijepur are Kuiltas, Dumals Agharias, Bhulias/Mehers (the weavers), Brahmins etc. Kuiltas and Dumals are presumed to be an offshoot of the original Chasa (agrarian) community and are synonymous with the Khandayats of the coastal region. This is evident by the striking similarity of rituals and gods they worship. When Bhulias settled in this region is controversial. Agharias were migrated from the

Mughal empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

for establishing a cultivator community during war when Kuiltas were assigned the duty of part-time

Kshatriyas Kshatriya () (from Sanskrit ''kṣatra'', "rule, authority"; also called Rajanya) is one of the four varnas (social orders) of Hindu society and is associated with the warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term ''kṣatriyaḥ'' is used in the con ...

. Sambalpuri is the language for communication. Oriya and English are used for official purposes and for higher education. FileKalasYatra Bijepur

Economics

The economy of Bijepur is largely dependent on farming vegetables and sambalpuri saree. The daily market of Bijepur is claimed to be the largest vegetable market in this block. "Sambalpuri Sarees" originated from there. Ikkat Hand woven sarees and other Sambalpuri clothes are made in Bijepur.

Education

Bijepur has an adequate number of schools and a reputed degree college. Along with this, there is also a school run by Anand Marg.

Politics

References

{{reflist Cities and towns in Bargarh district