Calcutta has the unique tradition of receiving people warmly, coming from any remote corner of the world. The compassionate city adores its denizens and indulges them lovingly. Searching for an empty space in Calcutta is virtually searching for a mirage, as almost all the parks, vacant plots, porches and even pavements in Calcutta are replete with men, women and children. These helpless and hapless lots have nowhere to turn to and even line the canals and railway tracks. These people lead sickly and malnourished lives. But due to lack of awareness and illiteracy, they produce several children and die a premature death. Infant mortality rate among them is naturally alarming. Among these extremely indigent people, some do not have a roof overhead in a humble dwelling place, whereas the remaining ones who comprise one-third of the city's population live somehow in one-room slum tenements miserably.

In common parlance, 'slum' and 'bustee' are used synonymously. However, they have varied legal implication. A 'slum' area, legally, is one where the living conditions are deplorable, public health, hygiene, morals or safety of the people are endangered. The 'bustee' on the other hand, is not defined by the conditions of life but by its physical features. It implies an occupied tract of land, not less than seven hundred square meters in area with a collection of shanties. It is true that the slum-dwellers lack secure employment of large-scale organized industry. However, they are somewhat assured of work except in cases of extreme recession, because most of the skilled labourers dwell in the slums.

The pavement dwellers, on the other hand, are a literally helpless and miserable lot. They are not skilled technically which would help them earn their livelihood. Instead, they live by dint of sheer physical labour. Initially, these people had a tremendous sense of inferiority owing to their ignorance of any trade. The men take up the most strenuous, mean and lowly occupations and struggle for existence whereas the women mostly work as charwomen in the local houses. The particular portion of the pavement obtained by each individual is determined by his/her occupation. Moreover, they always go through the fear of eviction by the police.

The pavement dwellers have an unique system of collecting and transmitting news or information. The incessant struggle for existence has taught them to be incredibly prompt on collecting valuable information like the place where a suitable job vacancy exists, the time when the next eviction operation will take place or a place where a charitable organization has arranged for 'Daridra Narayan Seva' for giving out free food to the poor and destitutes. The areas around the mines and factories, docks and railway stations are happy hunting grounds for these people as all these places require laborers on daily wage basis. The pavement dwellers lack the means to build a dwelling place. Herein, they are different from the slum dwellers who are comparatively more settled and assured of filling their maws.

Most of the transient roadside settlements and slums have been formed by refugees from East Pakistan. Infiltration in the city also takes place frequently from the villages of 24-Parganas. The slum dwellers are mostly engaged as domestic servants, sweepers, daily wage laborers, small traders etc. Their monthly income ranges between Rs. 300 and Rs. 1000. Their places of work are usually not very far away from their habitats. Interestingly, many slum based industries are found to grow and develop entirely within the slums. These mostly deal in wood and machinery, hosieries, leather works, rubber recycling units, paper bags etc.

Sometimes, the evicted people from the villages as well as Calcutta's own slums fill in the pavements. Again, a pavement dweller occasionally promotes himself to the slums by dint of hard work and skill. There are instances when a rickshaw puller from the pavement works sedulously and makes his way up to a slum tenement. In such cases, his spouse generally works as a charwoman in five or six houses and helps her man to sustain the family.

Another striking disparity between the two is that the slum-dwellers fall within the purview of development projects. The slums have managed to acquire water, drainage, electricity and schools to some extent. But their nomadic counterpart have not. The pavement dwellers continue to live on the streets a miserable and precarious life without any development or the slightest ray of hope for improving their lots. However, during catastrophes when cruel fate masquerades as wars, famines, droughts etc., both these classes suffer the most and sometimes even perish.

To conclude, it becomes absolutely relevant to discuss specifically about some features of these ill-fated people who struggle relentlessly to survive in this metropolis. In this regard, the particular caste-group of Harijan leather workers in the Tiljala, Tangra, and Topsia areas must be mentioned at first. This area is isolated from the main city by a broad canal. The wastes and sewerage water of Calcutta flows through this canal. This area is also bereft of greenery due to heaps of garbage. Here live the Chamars who constitute a 100 million of the total population of India. Initially, they were very insecure and vulnerable. Then they amalgamated with the Mehtars, Kehars, Dosads and Doms who already lived in this area reeking of latrines, open drains, pigsties, chimney smoke and pungent smell of chemicals.

It is true that Calcutta has received the Chamars like many others and at least emancipated them from the mean rural politics and oppression. But their social life is confined to the stingy and stinking lanes of Tangra, Topsia, Tiljala and Dhapa. This insalubrious sector of Calcutta can only breathe a whiff of fresh air through the Park Circus Maidan beyond which are railway lines, cow and buffalo carcasses hanging from stuffed yards.

These Chamars work in the tanneries or leather factories and thereby follow the age-old occupation of their ancestors in the villages. Every night, the people of this community sing the parochial songs and make merry with 'dholak', leather 'dampha' etc. They sit in groups and drink the cheap liquor. The bonds of kinship are strong among them. These people are also very superstitious – particularly about witch-doctors, exorcists, quacks etc.

The Calcutta Chamars are among the city's 24 lac slum dwellers. They are the worst sufferers and derive the least benefit from the developmental projects of the CMDA. They live an unhygienic and unhealthy life among garbage and squalor and fall the easiest victims to malaria, enteric fever and epidemics like cholera. Similarly, all other people who lead a life of hands to mouth existence, viz., the porters, hand-cart-pullers, daily casual laborers, Rickshaw pullers, hawkers, beggars, rag pickers, sweepers, masons, vegetable vendors, carpenters, shoe shine men etc. live in their respective slums with the never ending miseries of poor health, sickness, premature death, incertitude of shelter and innumerable allied problems.

In spite of all the pessimistic sides, it cannot be denied that Calcutta has at least provided these penurious and down-trodden people with some work and installed in them the faith and hope that they are not helpless untouchables but do play a significant role in the city's everyday life. Indeed, they constitute an integral part of Calcutta.