u/Noobish-Terminator

Same company will pay more for the same role in a different T1 city. Many companies deliberately choose Kolkata because costs are lower here. So they cleaned up the footpath stalls and all concerns are about what will Sector V people eat affordably now. All the while there’s no pressure by the same people to hike salaries. Do you guys think without the awareness and active pressure, the companies just became benevolent for workers in other cities? They’re paying more out of the goodness of their hearts? No. Workers there aren’t going to be satisfied because they realize the worth of work they do.

In Salt Lake a worker will undercut another employee, being okay with lower salary, just to grab a job. A worker will be perfectly okay drawing a basic low salary because “cholche to” mentality.

The stalls being cleared or not, the root of the problem is never addressed.

Assume an MNC comes to scout a new headquarter in east India and visits Salt Lake, so-called IT hub. And sees all these unorganized shops. Is that a good look?

They don’t come here > jobs don’t expand > people don’t get paid more > people eat ₹50 pita paratha and call it a national victory > hawkers make bank and encroach more > better companies don’t come here > repeat. This is a vicious cycle we ourselves encouraged. For ₹50 pita paratha worker army they also believe ₹10k salary is already too much.

Now think of cooking conditions and general hygiene of the cheap food you get here. Is that a way to sustain yourself?

From no angle is footpath encroachment a good thing.

People go crazy if muri-chop starts costing ₹10 more. Nobody goes crazy when they learn what their peers earn elsewhere. “ekhane cholche to, ekhane food onek cheap, ekhankar etai to USP ami bhalo kore khaoar afford korte pari, bangalore ba hyderabad e tui korte parbi na lolol” like it’s something to be proud of.

Such myopic, short-term, tunnel vision keeping the whole economy behind. People must laugh when they see Kolkata people being angry at removal or unhygienic, unorganized, illegal, footpath-encroaching hawker shops. Wake tf up.