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Chapter 21 UrbaN livelihoods
India is a land of diversity. Here people not just follow different religions, customs or
practices but also follow different occupations to earn their livelihoods.
The difference is not just in their dressing style, but they also have different lifestyles and
professions.
urban livelihooDs
There are more than five thousand towns and twenty-seven big cities in India. Cities like
Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, etc have more than a million people living and working
here. In urban areas, people do all types of jobs. The educated people either do business
or service whereas uneducated or less educated people do all sorts of low profile jobs to
make their living like rickshaw pulling, becoming a vendor, working at construction sites,
tailoring, hair cutting, selling tea, snacks, tiffin and grocery, etc.
tyPes of urban jobs
(i) work in shoPs
In cities, everything, that one needs, has to be bought. Therefore, a large number of people
have their own shops and they appoint some people as salesmen.
a shoPPing mall
They sell a variety of things such as clothes, books, stationery, toys, food items, electronic
goods, Jewellery, cars, etc. Now in big cities, there are several shopping malls. These are
large buildings with different kinds of material shops, offices, picture hall on different floors.
People work in shops and showrooms as managers, cashiers, assistants, peons, cleaners,
watchmen, guards, etc.
(ii) work on the roads
Some people work on road side as vegetable
vendors, hawkers, cobblers, garment and
cloth sellers, utensil sellers, etc. These
vendors move from street to street and
door to door and supply different kind of
materials to citizens at their door step.
(iii) work in factories
In a city, there is a separate area where factories are located, usually this area is situated
away from the residential area. People come everyday for work and go back to their homes,
sometimes they work day and night and get wages as overtime. In factories, people work as
Social Studies-6 101
