European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                India s largest Oty pop. 10 million and perhaps 10 million Ca Lamotle it known Lor generations of Dallera who sleep Bathe end eat on the Street the pavement dwellers of Calcutta by Steven Weisman new York times t was a typical scene in Calcutta. Over an open fire on a noisy Ira flip Island a woman was cooking lunch while her children Nahed or in rags pushed each other waiting for something to eat. Piles of garbage surrounded a Liny tent of plastic sheeting and Gunn sacks that served As the family s shelter. Fumes poured in from the Ira fic. Crows hopped about scavenging or an extra scrap themselves. Like other homeless people in Calcutta this family had managed to eat by collecting Chicken skins thrown out by a Butcher and vegetables dropped from carts at a nearby Market to fact they had come to the City to escape even worse deprivation in he Countryside. If we stayed in our Village How much could we earn asked Abdul Mazid 52. Mister Why Don t you understand this is my Homeland now. There is no place better than  Calcutta is a City of nearly 10 million people and perhaps 10 million calamities. Choked by traffic garbage and a rotting sewer system built nearly 100 years ago it nonetheless provides a livelihood Lor the poorest of the poor. Homelessness. A growing problem in the United slates and Europe occurs there on a wholly different  three million people live m crowded and Illey hovels mostly without elect Sicily or sanitation. By some estimates 300,000 sleep Bathe and eat on Street pavements. During the Monsoon Rains they scramble or shelter under awnings or doorways. In new York City by con rail. There Are More than 27,000 people living in Public shelters Many of them converted armoires Hal Oiler cols in rooms the size of gymnasiums. Countless others live a More nomadic existence Laking Refuge in doorways on heated Street grates in subway tunnels and in railway stations for most of its 300 years. Calcutta has been almost synonymous with slums As it grew irom a few scattered villages in he Delta Region of the Bay of Bengal Mlo the mighty Indus Nal Hub of the British Empire inexplicably the Calcutta slums have attracted worldwide International  says a recent pamphlet from the Calcutta metropolitan development authority. That attention has increased because of the activities of Mother Teresa and he publication of he Book the cily of Jay by Dominique Lapierre it is not unusual to visit one of Calcutta s 300 registered slum communities or busters and find a tour group wandering through. Over the years successive governments in the state of Wesl Bengal have realized hat the building of new tenements lors us dwellers is almost futile. Instead they have tried to provide electricity plumbing and roadways to make their lives less miserable. That leaves the pavement dwellers who Are becoming a growing problem in in Rosa not Only in Calcutta but in other cities where the population is growing at twice the National Rale. Rudyard Kipling one of Many who saw that Calcutta was iwo different cities referred in a poem to the City s Palace Byre Hovel poverty and Pride Side by  As before poverty Here coexists Wilh Prosperity. The homeless represent the underside of an Economy dominated by rising property values for the Well to do who pay As much As $100,000 for apartments of houses. As or the people in the Streel. They say they can make a living in Calcutta and would rather spend their Money for Ood and clothing than rent. Rents can be High even in the busters. At the traffic Island in North Calcutta one member of the family begs for a living earning perhaps so cents a Day. Another collects scraps of leather plastic and paper from junk piles taking it to a middleman to be recycled. When i make enough Money. I will go Back to my  said mar uni Khatum. A 12-year-old girl with a half shut Eye who was about logo of to beg. Asked who taught her to beg she said bitterly my  her name was testimony to a moslem family s dismay at the birth of its youngest daughter. In Bengali mar uni Means Why Aren t you dying not far away in the Shadow of Sarwari Hospital another family was camped out on a pavement. They claimed they and the people irom their Village had been at that particular spot for 40 years. One Man was a cons Duclion worker a woman worked As a maid for iwo Middle class households i Don l like living Here but it s worse in my Village said Gila Sarkar a 20-year-old Mother the officials who Deal Wilh housing speak of the curious phenomenon of Ca scullans preferring to live and work in the City rather than live out of town and take the bus in. Bui advocates for the homeless argue Hal the government has made the problem worse by trying to increase property values with its development projects leaving no place Lor the very poor. These people Don l live in the streets out of Choice said Jai sen director of Unayan. A leading advocacy group for the poor. They re forced to live there. Some Are forced out of busters because of rising rents but for others it s the Only place they can go to be near their  Unayan has died to Slop slum clearance programs in which busters were razed to make room for housing for the Middle class in 1983, the group protested when 25.000 people were picked up from Calcutta s pavements. A More immediate problem tar the homeless is police corruption since it is illegal for people to live on the pavements police officers extract payments and Ihie Alen to arrest the homeless if they do not pay every family