The Gazetteers Department

Hotels and restaurants are quite common in towns and big villages. The urbanization of population following the growth of industries, is responsible to a great extent for the rise of hotels and restaurants. A number of industries sprang up in and around towns with the result that people from distant areas flocked in at such places, leaving their families at their native places. To provide meals, eatables, beverages to these people, hotels and restaurants came into existence.

Another factor that is responsible for the growth of hotels is the rapid change in the fashions, tastes and likings of the people.

The 1951 Census enumerated 1,567 persons engaged in this occupation while the 1961 Census recorded their number at 768. This number includes only waiters and related workers.

In recent years, hotels have made deep inroads in distant villages. They are not hotels in the strict sense of the term but are in the nature of small tea-shops managed by proprietors with limited means. They are usually situated near the bus-stops, and are generally housed in huts. Benches and chairs, generally obsolete, are placed for the convenience of the customers. They are equipped with a few pots, a kettle or two, a stove and trays to keep dry eatables, such as. chivda, bhaji, etc.

They provide milk, tea, coffee, etc. Very few of them also provide dry-dishes such as sheo, chivda and bhaji. The business and the area of service is limited. They earn an income, ranging between Rs. 125 and Rs. 200 per month.

Hotels in cities and towns in the district, present an altogether different-picture than the small tea-shops in villages described above. They are bigger, well-equipped with good items of furniture, in many cases covered with sunmica sheets, electric fans, etc. They have a good number of utensils, generally of stainless steel. They have radio sets, show-cases, and they provide various sweet-meals. beverages and snacks, However, excepting a few cases, the hotels in Dhulia district do not present so good an appearance and are not so well-equipped as those in cities like Bombay, Poona or Nagpur.

The material required includes such items as tea, coffee, sugar, milk, ovaltine, gram-flour, oil, salt, vegetables, spices vanaspati oil, etc. The amount spent on them differs widely in case of different hotels depending more or less on the size of the hotel and its turn-over. The latter in turn depends on the quality of the items served and the location- The value of these items ranges between Rs.300 and Rs. 800 per month. Most of these establishments are housed in rented premises in cities and towns, the rent varying between Rs. 20 and Rs. 80 per month. Taking all these items of expenditure, the income of the establishment varies somewhere between Rs. 1.50 and Rs. 600 per month.

Tables, chairs, cupboards, show-cases, cups, and saucers, big utensils, frying pans and strainers comprise the main tools and equipment. The expenditure on these items is of a fixed nature. This expenditure too, depends, to a great extent, on the size of the establishment and varies, generally, between Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,500.

The establishments employ hired labourers to man different specific jobs. Cooks and waiters come under these categories. For doing odd jobs such as cleaning tables and the floor, serving water to the customers, etc., boys above 15 years are employed. Cooks and waiters are paid monthly wages ranging between Rs. 60 and Rs. 90 with snacks twice a day. Others are paid daily wages from Re. 1 to Rs. 1.50 with snacks twice a day.

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