It is a fact that Dominique Lapierre was inspired to write City Of Joy the famous book by visiting one of the biggest slums of Howrah. 

Howrah, under the Kolkata Mega City, covering the left stretch of Grand Trunk Road from Bally to Panchpara, of Howrah Municipal Corporation, It  is a haven for a number of Jute Mills, small-scale and sick industries.  Once known as the Sheffield of the East. The region has fallen into obscurity marked by a grinding cycle of endemic poverty, unchecked population growth and overall paucity of development initiatives. A once thriving industrial zone has now become a vast belt for sick and closed factories with feeble economic activity. The economic scenario is at a standstill owing to a marked instability in the unskilled employment sector. Also, the landless and marginal farmers, wage labourers and other job-seekers migrate from adjacent region to the slums and squatter settlement of Howrah district with the hope of locating greener pastures. This unabated exodus along with their family members has further exerted a great deal of pressure on the slums and squatters, of Howrah district consequently. The human development indicators for the areas reveal a stark picture.