The eight STR loci were CSF1PO, TPOX, THO1, vWA, D16S539, D7S820, D13S317, and D5S818, HLA-DQA1. The five polymarker loci were LDLR, GYPA, HBGG, D7S8, and GC. Blood samples were collected from 115 west Punjabi residents and 81 Bengali residents. The observed heterozygosities for HLA-DQA1 and PM loci varied from 30 to 72 percent for Punjabi and 36 to 87 percent for the Bengali population. The observed heterozygosity values for STR loci varied from 59 to 77 percent for Punjabi and 63 to 87 percent for the Bengali population. Heterozygosity observed in these populations shows a high degree of polymorphism associated with these loci. In both the Bengali and Punjabi groups, the HLA-DQA1 locus displayed the highest power of discrimination value (0.939 and 0.937 respectively) and the D7S8 locus, the lowest (0.504 and 0.507). Power of exclusion values were the highest for two loci (0.656 for HLA-DQA1 in Bengali and 0.631 for vWA in the Punjabi population). Departures from Hardy-Weinberg were observed in the Punjabi population at LDLR, THO1, D13S317, D5S818, and D16S539 and at CSF1PO and THO1 in the Bengali population. 3 tables and 10 references