TITLE:
Living Status/Shelter of Street Families of Kolkata: Prospects and Challenges
AUTHORS:
Harasankar Adhikari
KEYWORDS:
Street Families, Shelter, Economy of Street Families, Women’s Privacy and Security
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.1 No.6,
September
25,
2014
ABSTRACT: Kolkata is a densely populated
city of eastern India with an estimated population of about 10 million and it
is the fourth largest city in India (after Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore). A huge number of the population has settled
their family on the pavements/streets or in the unauthorized slums (jhupri at canal side) of Kolkata for
more than 40 years after migration from different districts of West Bengal and
its neighboring states like Bihar, Orissa & Uttar Pradesh and from the
neighboring country, Bangladesh and Nepal for securing their better living and
it is a continuous process. But, there they live without requisite facilities
and it is unprotected without any doubt. This present paper examines living
status/shelter of street dwellers of Kolkata and their strategies for its improvement
in future. For the purpose of the study, qualitative and quantitative data had
been collected through adopting a random purposive sampling. Five hundred
members of street families of different parts of Kolkata were interviewed in
respect of their age, sex, religion, education, occupation, connecting person
and etc. using a structured interview schedule. The information on their better
shelter had also been collected through focus group discussion. From the study,
it reveals that safe shelter was a prime hindrance for their survival. Due to absence
of this, women’s privacy and security were violated. For their better shelter
the majority of them were indifferent and only 10% of them had taken initiative
on their own for safe shelter at the suburban area of the city.