ABSTRACT
The waste picker community constitutes a particularly disadvantaged segment of such economic migrants. After migrating, these people have taken up residence beside the railway tracks and heavily polluted canals in the eastern fringe areas of Calcutta: Park Circus, Tangra, Topsia and Tiljala. The specific history and geography of these areas characterise the nature of the socio-economic marginalisation of the community in residence. Squatter settlements food without adequate nutritional value, contaminated water and non-existent sewage facilities paint a grim picture of the urban marginalisation and poverty of this community. It has generated so many behavioural patterns, stories, gossip and rumours which helped to formulate the people analysis of the community's socio-cultural and religious domains, their relationships, and to identify their fears, abstentions, very few aspirations and dreams. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
