The survey revealed that about 38 per cent of the city's population resides in makeshift tents on the pavements. About 82 per cent of these families do not have a ration card or voters' identity card.

In the absence of identification papers, they are regularly harassed by police and at times, false charges are framed against them. "If the KMC issues identity cards, they would no longer be targets of police harassment," a civic official said.

The survey has covered topics such as nature of the shelter, their occupation etc. Every intricate detail about the means of livelihood of these people and the standard of living is mentioned in the report.

The NGOs that conducted the survey spoke to the pavement dwellers living on the pavements of central and north Kolkata such as Park Circus, Ripon Street, Moulali, Taltala, Esplanade and N S C Bose Road.

The minimum income of the families surveyed is less than Rs 80 per day. (The survey does not take into account rainy days or strikes or festivals. On an average, the number of members in each of the surveyed families is more than 5. So the average income is below Rs 5,000.