Reports on Street Hawkers observing the National and International Status:
Street Hawking as a Profession has been in existence in India since time immemorial. The hawkers are unique phenomena in all metropolitan cities of India . The practice of street hawking might have begun centuries ago. In those early days these sellers of various articles of daily household necessity were really hawkers in the true sense of the term. Their calls and cries were heard during noon in all seasons as they carried their wares in baskets and moved from one locality of a city or town to another. The passing of decades in the history of the country has seen so many events and calamities taking place in the lives of the people. Population has taken a quantum jump in sheer number, particularly in the last fifty/sixty years. The country has undergone a rapid development from an essentially agriculture-based economy to the introduction of industries, and with it came mechanization of the means of production. The catastrophic partition of the country in 1947 witnessed an unending flow of uprooted million to border-skirting states of India . The migration of starving refugees still continues; only the number has come down to a steady trickle. Thousands of uprooted families have spread themselves in various towns and cities. The employment situation in most of the service-sectors is, plainly speaking, discouraging enough. To fend for themselves, the members of such families have chosen the means of earning by hawking on streets.
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This is exactly the backdrop against which the issue of Street Hawkers in Kolkata should be appreciated. Kolkata's hawkers are a unique lot. Most of their families have migrated from the erstwhile East Pakistan or Post '71 Bangla Desh to settle in the outskirts of the city. Many of them, of course, have somehow managed an overhead roof for themselves in some nook or corner of this expanding and receptive metropolis. But still, most of the street hawkers in Kolkata arrive in the city in the morning, stay and sell their wares through out the day, and return to their suburban homes at night. The passage of days, months and years has hardly changed their daily routine. One often hears the proud assertion that every thing – from a pin to an elephant – is available with the Kolkata street hawkers.
Now, there is a natural tendency among the hawkers to concentrate at places which are most frequented by prospective customers from financially viable locality. The hawkers trade in an astounding variety of article from food item for daily consumption of students, workers, office goers to household necessities and dainty decorative pieces. Most of them have ceased to be hawkers in the traditional sense. They select some vantage places to display their items for sale and occupy these places through the years.
The hawkers in Kolkata are a ubiquitous lot. They are to be found in the central downtown area of the city during office hours dishing out their cheap and tasty fares. They occupy the sides of footpaths in front of the schools and colleges and office buildings. But their concentration is mostly pronounced in well-heeled residential-cum-business localities like Gariahat, Lake Market , Bhawanipore, Shyambazar and dozens of such places. |
