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Hawkers in Kolkata numbering 275,000 generated business worth 87.72 billion (around 2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005. In Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal, almost 80 per cent of the pavements are encroached by hawkers and illegal settlers. In many countries, hawkers use pavements or other public places to retail their goods or services but in Kolkata the magnitude has drawn special attention of administrators and law courts. ==Background== The population of Kolkata urban agglomeration grew from 1,510,000 in 1901 to 4,670,000 in 1951 to 9,194,000 in 1981.〔Chakraborty, Satyesh C., ''The Growth of Calcutta in the Twentieth Century'', in ''Calcutta:The Living City'', Vol II, Edited by Chaudhuri, Sukanta, 1990/2005, Page 7, Table 2, ISBN 0-19-563697-X〕 Kolkata did not draw in people from rural areas by offering a better quality of life. As in any other Indian city, the immigrants found poverty in Kolkata as severe and dehumanising as in the villages, but was offered a relatively quick opportunity of new income through placement in the urban economy. With the partition of India in 1947, the metropolitan cities of Kolkata and Delhi were flooded by displaced persons or refugees from Pakistan. The Union government at Delhi, with better resources at its command, handled the task of rehabilitation faster and more comprehensively, than the state government in Kolkata could accomplish. Left largely to themselves the refugees in Kolkata gradually secured their placements in the urban economy.〔 The 1951 census found that only 33.2 percent of Kolkata's inhabitants were city-born, the rest were immigrants: 12.3 percent were from elsewhere in West Bengal, 26.6 percent from other Indian states, and 26.9 percent from East Pakistan. In 1981, the Government of West Bengal estimated the total number of persons displaced from East Bengal to the state to be around 8 million or one sixth of the total population of the state.〔Nilanjana Chatterjee, ''The East Bengal Refugees, A lesson in Survival'', in ''Calcutta:The Living City'', Vol II, p. 70.〕 Several million refugees settled in the outskirts of Kolkata.〔Datta, Bhabatosh, ''The Economy of Calcutta, Today and Tomorrow'', in ''Calcutta:The Living City'', Vol II, pp. 96-104.〕 The percentage of migrants in Kolkata's population has been declining since the 1950s, though around a third of the population still consists of fresh migrants. Kolkata is gradually attaining a state of saturation.〔Ghosh, Ambikaprasad, ''The Demography of Calcutta'', in ''Calcutta:The Living City'', Vol II, p. 51, 57.〕 It has also been affected by economic decline resulting from industrial sickness. In 2005, West Bengal headed the list of states with sick units.〔 The overall economic scenario is highlighted by the growing number of pavement dwellers. Kolkata had 48,802 pavement dwellers in 1971 and 55,571 in 1985, according to Census and/or KMDA figures. Around two-thirds are from West Bengal and the rest from outside the state.〔 While the economy of Kolkata has been sliding backwards in many respects, there has been remarkable expansion in certain areas – real estate, information technology and retail trade. Big shopping centres have come up, and along with it there has been a large increase in small shops and pavement stalls.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】‘Bengal fifth most attractive destination’ )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hawkers in Kolkata」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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