A resident of Calcutta is referred to via the demonym Calcuttan or Calcuttan. According to provisional results of the 2011 national census, Calcutta district, which occupies an area of 185 km2 (71 sq mi), had a population of 4,486,679; its population density was 24,252 /km2 (62,810 /sq mi). This represents a decline of 1.88% during the decade 2001–11. The sex ratio is 899 females per 1000 males—lower than the national average. The ratio is depressed by the influx of working males from surrounding rural areas, from the rest of West Bengal, and from neighbouring states, mainly Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Orissa; these men commonly leave their families behind. Calcutta’s literacy rate of 87.14% exceeds the all-India average of 74%. The urban agglomeration had a population of 14,112,536 in 2011.
About 30% of the women and 18% of the men in Calcutta are obese—the majority of them belonging to the non-poor strata of society.:105 In 2005, Calcutta had the highest percentage (55%) among the surveyed cities of anaemic woman, while 20% of the men in Calcutta were anaemic.:56–57 Diseases like diabetes, asthma, goitre and other thyroid disorders were found in large numbers of people.:57–59 Tropical diseases like malaria, dengue and chikungunya are prevalent in Calcutta, though their incidence is decreasing. Calcutta is one of the districts in India with a high number of people with AIDS; it has been designated a district prone to high risk.
According to the 2005 National Family Health Survey, only a small proportion of Calcutta households were covered under any health scheme or health insurance.:41 The total fertility rate in Calcutta was 1.4, which was the lowest among the eight cities surveyed.:45 In Calcutta, 77% of the married women used contraceptives, which was the highest among the cities surveyed, but use of modern contraceptive methods was the lowest (46%).:47 The infant mortality rate in Kolkta was 41 per 1,000 live births, and the mortality rate for children under five was 49 per 1,000 live births.:48
All India Radio, the national state-owned radio broadcaster, airs several AM radio stations in the city. Calcutta has 12 local radio stations broadcasting on FM, including two from AIR. India’s state-owned television broadcaster, Doordarshan, provides two free-to-air terrestrial channels, while a mix of Bengali, Hindi, English, and other regional channels are accessible via cable subscription, direct-broadcast satellite services, or internet-based television. Bengali-language 24-hour television news channels include ABP Ananda, Tara Newz, Calcutta TV, 24 Ghanta, NE Bangla, News Time, and Channel 10.
Among Calcutta’s widely circulated Bengali-language newspapers are Anandabazar Patrika, Bartaman, Sangbad Pratidin, Aajkaal, Dainik Statesman and Ganashakti. The Statesman and The Telegraph are two major English-language newspapers that are produced and published from Calcutta. Other popular English-language newspapers published and sold in Calcutta include The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express, and the Asian Age. As the largest trading centre in East India, Calcutta has several high-circulation financial dailies, including The Economic Times, The Financial Express, Business Line, and Business Standard. Vernacular newspapers, such as those in the Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi, and Chinese lanuages, are read by minorities. Major periodicals based in Calcutta include Desh, Sananda, Saptahik Bartaman, Unish-Kuri, Anandalok, and Anandamela. Historically, Calcutta has been the centre of the Bengali little magazine movement.
Among the surveyed cities, Calcutta stood second (5%) for children who had not had any vaccinations under the Universal Immunization Programme as of 2005.:48 Calcutta ranked second among the surveyed cities, with access to an anganwadi centre under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme for 57% of the children between 0 and 71 months.:51 The proportion of malnourished, anaemic and underweight children in Calcutta was less in comparison to other surveyed cities.:54–55
As a nucleus of the 19th- and early 20th-century Bengal Renaissance and a religiously and ethnically diverse centre of culture in Bengal and India, Calcutta has established local traditions in drama, art, film, theatre, and literature that have gained wide audiences. Many people from Calcutta—among them several Nobel laureates—have contributed to the arts, the sciences, and other areas, while Calcutta culture features idiosyncrasies that include distinctively close-knit neighbourhoods (paras) and freestyle intellectual exchanges (adda). West Bengal’s share of the Bengali film industry is based in the city, which also hosts venerable cultural institutions of national importance, such as the Academy of Fine Arts, the Victoria Memorial, the Asiatic Society, the Indian Museum, and the National Library of India. Though home to major cricketing venues and franchises, Calcutta differs from other Indian cities by giving importance to association football and other sports.
As of 2003, about one-third of the population, or 1.5 million people, lived in 3,500 unregistered squatter-occupied and 2,011 registered slums.:4:92 The authorised slums (with access to basic services like water, latrines, trash removal by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation) can be broadly divided into two groups—bustees, in which slum dwellers have some long term tenancy agreement with the landowners; and udbastu colonies, settlements which had been leased to refugees from present-day Bangladesh by the Government.:5 The unauthorised slums (devoid of basic services provided by the municipality) are occupied by squatters who started living on encroached lands—mainly along canals, railway lines and roads.:92:5 According to the 2005 National Family Health Survey, around 14% of the households in Calcutta were poor, while 33% lived in slums, indicating a substantial proportion of households in slum areas were better off economically than the bottom quarter of urban households in terms of wealth status.:23 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding and working with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta—an organisation “whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after”.
As of 2010, the Calcutta urban agglomeration is home to 14 universities run by the state government. The colleges are each affiliated with a university or institution based either in Calcutta or elsewhere in India. The University of Calcutta, founded in 1857, is the oldest modern university in South Asia. Bengal Engineering and Science University is the 2nd oldest prestigious engineering institution of the country located in Howrah. Jadavpur University is known for its arts, science, and engineering faculties. The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, which was the first of the Indian Institutes of Management, was established in 1961 at Joka, a locality in the south-western suburbs. The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences is one of India’s autonomous law schools, while the Indian Statistical Institute is a public research institute and university.
As of 2011, the health care system in Calcutta consists of 48 government hospitals, mostly under the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, and 366 private medical establishments; these establishments provide the city with 27,687 hospital beds. For every 10,000 people in the city, there are 61.7 hospital beds, which is higher than the national average of 9 hospital beds per 10,000. Ten medical and dental colleges are located in the Calcutta metropolitan area which act as tertiary referral hospitals in the state. Calcutta Medical College, founded in 1835, was the first institution in Asia to teach modern medicine. These facilities are inadequate to meet the healthcare needs of the city. More than 78% in Calcutta prefer the private medical sector over the public medical sector,:109 due to the poor quality of care, the lack of a nearby facility, and excessive waiting times at government facilities.:61
As the seat of the Government of West Bengal, Calcutta is home to not only the offices of the local governing agencies, but also the West Bengal Legislative Assembly; the state secretariat, which is housed in the Writers’ Building; and the Calcutta High Court. Calcutta has lower courts: the Court of Small Causes and the City Civil Court decide civil matters; the Sessions Court rules in criminal cases. The Calcutta Police, headed by a police commissioner, is overseen by the West Bengal Ministry of Home Affairs. The Calcutta district elects two representatives to India’s lower house, the Lok Sabha, and 11 representatives to the state legislative assembly.
Bengali people form the majority of Calcutta’s population; Marwaris and Biharis compose large minorities. Among Calcutta’s smaller communities are Chinese, Tamils, Nepalis, Oriyas, Telugus, Assamese, Gujaratis, Anglo-Indians, Armenians, Greeks, Tibetans, Maharashtrians, Konkanis, Malayalees, Punjabis, and Parsis.:3 The number of Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and other foreign-origin groups declined during the 20th century—in the case of the Jewish population, after the establishment of Israel in 1948. India’s sole Chinatown is in eastern Calcutta; once home to 20,000 ethnic Chinese, its population dropped to around 2,000 as of 2009 as a result of multiple factors including repatriation and denial of Indian citizenship following the 1962 Sino-Indian War, and immigration to foreign countries for better economic opportunities. The Chinese community traditionally worked in the local tanning industry and ran Chinese restaurants.
Bengali, the official state language, is the dominant language in Calcutta. English is also used, particularly by the white-collar workforce. Hindi and Urdu are spoken by a sizeable minority. According to the 2001 census, 77.68% of the population is Hindu, 20.27% Muslim, 0.88% Christian, and 0.46% Jain. The remainder of the population includes Sikhs, Buddhists, and other religions; 0.19% did not state a religion in the census. Calcutta reported 67.6% of Special and Local Laws crimes registered in 35 large Indian cities during 2004. The Calcutta police district registered 15,510 Indian Penal Code cases in 2010, the 8th-highest total in the country. In 2010, the crime rate was 117.3 per 100,000, below the national rate of 187.6; it was the lowest rate among India’s largest cities.
Buses, which are the most commonly used mode of transport, are run by government agencies and private operators. Calcutta is the only Indian city with a tram network, which is operated by the Calcutta Tramways Company. The slow-moving tram services are restricted to certain areas of the city. Water-logging, caused by heavy rains that fall during the summer monsoon, can interrupt transportation networks. Hired public conveyances include auto rickshaws, which often ply specific routes, and yellow metered taxis. Almost all of Calcutta’s taxis are antiquated Hindustan Ambassadors by make; newer air-conditioned radio taxis are also in service. In parts of the city, cycle rickshaws and hand-pulled rickshaws are patronised by the public for short trips.
By the 1850s, Calcutta had two areas: White Town, which was primarily British and centred around Chowringhee; and Black Town, mainly Indian and centred around North Calcutta. The city underwent rapid industrial growth starting in the early 1850s, especially in the textile and jute industries; this encouraged British companies to massively invest in infrastructure projects, which included telegraph connections and Howrah railway station. The coalescence of British and Indian culture resulted in the emergence of a new babu class of urbane Indians, whose members were often bureaucrats, professionals, newspaper readers, and Anglophiles; they usually belonged to upper-caste Hindu communities. In the 19th century, the Bengal Renaissance brought about an increased sociocultural sophistication among city denizens. In 1883, Calcutta was host to the first national conference of the Indian National Association, the first avowed nationalist organisation in India. Gradually, Calcutta became a centre for revolutionary organisations associated with the Indian independence movement. The temporary 1905 partition of Bengal along communal lines resulted in widespread public agitation and a boycott of British goods by the Swadeshi movement. These activities, along with the administratively disadvantageous location of Calcutta on the eastern fringes of India, prompted the British to move the capital to New Delhi in 1911.
Due to its diverse and abundant public transportation, privately owned vehicles are not as common in Calcutta as in other major Indian cities. The city has witnessed a steady increase in the number of registered vehicles; 2002 data showed an increase of 44% over a period of seven years. As of 2004, after adjusting for population density, the city’s “road space” was only 6% compared to 23% in Delhi and 17% in Mumbai. The Calcutta Metro has somewhat eased traffic congestion, as has the addition of new roads and flyovers. Agencies operating long-distance bus services include Calcutta State Transport Corporation, South Bengal State Transport Corporation, North Bengal State Transport Corporation, and various private operators. The city’s main bus terminals are located at Esplanade, Karunamoyee, and Babughat. The Calcutta–Delhi and Calcutta–Chennai prongs of the Golden Quadrilateral, and National Highway 34 start from the city.
During the 1960s and 1970s, severe power shortages, strikes, and a violent Marxist–Maoist movement by groups known as the Naxalites damaged much of the city’s infrastructure, resulting in economic stagnation. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 led to a massive influx of thousands of refugees, many of them penniless, that strained Calcutta’s infrastructure. During the mid-1980s, Mumbai (then called Bombay) overtook Calcutta as India’s most populous city. In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi dubbed Calcutta a “dying city” in light of its socio-political woes.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, Bengali literature was modernised through the works of authors such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Coupled with social reforms led by Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, and others, this constituted a major part of the Bengal Renaissance. The middle and latter parts of the 20th century witnessed the arrival of post-modernism, as well as literary movements such as those espoused by the Kallol movement, hungryalists and the little magazines. Large majority of publishers of the city is concentrated in and around College Street, “…a half-mile of bookshops and bookstalls spilling over onto the pavement”, selling new and used books.
Eden Gardens, which has a capacity of 90,000 as of 2011, hosted the final match of the 1987 Cricket World Cup. It is home to the Bengal cricket team and the Calcutta Knight Riders. The multi-use Salt Lake Stadium, also known as Yuva Bharati Krirangan, is the world’s second-largest football facility by seating capacity as of 2010. The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is the second-oldest cricket club in the world. Calcutta has three 18-hole golf courses. The oldest is at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, the first golf club built outside the United Kingdom. The other two are located at the Tollygunge Club and at Fort William. The Royal Calcutta Turf Club hosts horse racing and polo matches. The Calcutta Polo Club is considered the oldest extant polo club in the world. The Calcutta South Club is a venue for national and international tennis tournaments; it held the first grass-court national championship in 1946. In the period 2005–2007, Sunfeast Open, a tier-III tournament on the Women’s Tennis Association circuit, was held in the Netaji Indoor Stadium; it has since been discontinued.
Electricity is supplied by the privately operated Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, or CESC, to the city proper; the West Bengal State Electricity Board supplies it in the suburbs. Fire services are handled by the West Bengal Fire Service, a state agency. As of 2012, the city had 16 fire stations.