Rs 100 crore sales/day: That’s why dalas will never go out of business

At Gariahat, where a fire gutted two landmark stores and rendered 100 residents of a building homeless in the heart of South Kolkata, a square foot of dala space is worth Rs 4,000; that is how much dala owners have had to fork out to set up their stall on the pavement.


On Canning Street, less than 50 feet from Bagri Market, where another dala contributed to another fire that has put out of business a market with an annual turnover of around Rs 3,000 crore, every square foot of dala space is worth Rs 5,000.


A total of 3.25 lakh dalas in Kolkata and its adjoining areas generate sales of almost Rs 100 crore every day (average sales of Rs 3,000 though dalas in New Market and Burrabazar earn up to Rs 15,000 daily). The dalas also “contribute” around Rs 6.5 crore daily to the ground-level network, comprising local politicians and officials, that runs the business, besides providing direct employment to nearly 7 lakh people. It is this market economics that ensures dalas will never go out of business in Kolkata, however many fires they contribute to and whatever financial damage they wreak.

“Pavements of Kolkata are a goldmine and nobody knows this better than the illegal dalas that are fast usurping public spaces and minting money out of every inch. Even very big brands cannot generate such astronomical sales because they have overheads like rent, labour, electricity and taxes. This winwin economics of dalas explains the politics of why they cannot be evicted,” a senior KMC official told TOI on Monday.


In several pockets of the city, a square foot of dala space is priced at Rs 5,000 per square foot, similar to the rate of an apartment at a project in New Town or the southern outskirts of the city. Some deals are even signed on non-judicial stamp paper and the contracts can range for one year to three years. Apart from the salami, which is onetime payment, the dalawala has to pay a rent to the owner of the space (see graphic).

Those trading in handbags and apparel do not think twice before coughing up the amount to get a vantage position at Gariahat or New Market. Those who lease these space after spending lakhs then do everything they can to make the stalls permanent.

Dala count in city likely to be over 3.3 lakh

After paying lakhs to get a vantage position on the pavement, the hawkers use bamboo poles at corners to demarcate boundaries, plastic sheets to protect them from the elements, wooden tables to act as sales counters all act as props to give these structures that appearance of permanence.

They also have electricity connections for installing lights, playing music and charging cellphones.

These structures then end up obscuring shops, blocking them off from thoroughfares, and shop owners across the city are at their wit’s end over how to tackle the problem. S S Hogg Market Traders’ Association president Ashok Gupta expressed his frustration: “We pay taxes and fees on shops but government agencies do nothing to protect our interests. It is as if hawkers are doing legitimate business and we are the illegal entities.”

The demand for dalas in New Market, Burrabazar and Gariahat has outstripped supply and, in many cases, there are people who are actually waiting for an existing dala owner to sell his space, says Hawker Sangram Committee general secretary Shaktiman Ghosh. He did a survey eight years ago and found 2.75 lakh dalas in Kolkata. This count is now believed to have exceeded 3.3 lakh.

Heads of unions in various districts admit that the business is lucrative even after the steep payout (nearly 10% of sales) to agencies and unions. “The payout is highest in areas like New Market, Burrabazar and Gariahat because space there is in huge demand. We normally have a daily or weekly system of payments in place. The business is so good that, even after paying everything, a hawker earns a decent sum,” the head of a union on Madan Street said.

Hawkers prefer a predatory administration over a regulatory one. “Hawkers are the most organised and militant in the informal sector. They fear a regulatory administration because that will curb their freedom to break laws like encroaching the carriageway, hooking power and blocking genuine shops,” said a city-based economist.