Kolkata, once the de facto capital of the communist world, is getting a lesson in free-market basics with the Election Commission of India’s special intensive revision – aka SIR – of electoral rolls sparking a scramble for stamp-size photographs needed to fill up the two forms to be included in the voters’ lists.
“I cannot talk now,” snapped a breathless shopkeeper at Chitrarupa Studio in Behala Chowrasta on a busy Friday evening, balancing a pair of scissors and a line of impatient customers while managing the kind of crowd usually seen during the Durga Puja shopping rush.
“Rs 60 for 20 copies. Do you want the printout or not? Please stand in the queue properly,” he continued without looking at his customers, around 10 of them somehow managing to fit into the cramped shop.
Another 20-odd customers stood on the pavement, loudly arguing about who had been waiting longer.
A few metres away, Ranjit Studio was fighting its own battle with urgency. An elderly woman eased her way inside the space and sighed, “Here they are charging Rs 120 for 20 copies minimum, so the crowd is a little less. People like me, who cannot stand for long, will obviously pay more. What to do?”
She lowered herself into a chair with the relief of someone who had conquered the Kolkata office rush hour.
It has been only four days since booth level officers began their visits for the SIR but it has already turned Kolkata’s photo studios into the city’s busiest hotspots.
Suddenly, two stamp-size photos – that every voter needs to affix to the form which is in duplicate – have become the city’s most sought-after item.
Studios that once printed 10 or 15 passport photos a day now resemble frenzied ticket counters. The demand has spilt over so much that even local photocopy shops have started offering glossy prints.
Most of them are charging Rs 10 for a single copy, and one has to get at least five copies done.
“A neighbour told me that Dutta Stores is taking photos on their phone and printing them as stamp-sized on glossy paper,” said Indra Nath Paul, a senior citizen in Behala. “They charged Rs 100 for 10 copies. They said they cannot do fewer. Who needs 10 copies?”
Across Kestopur, Baguiati, Santoshpur, Chandni Chowk and practically every pin code in Kolkata, the story is the same.
“At my studios in Baguiati, we used to print 10 or 15 passport-size photos a day. Now we are printing 400 to 500,” said Deb Kumar Pal of Deb Studios in Baguiati, his voice carrying the tired satisfaction of someone who has not sat down since breakfast.
“I shut one studio and placed six staff members in the other so that we can handle the crowd. We work from nine in the morning to nine at night. We have not raised our rates.”
Not every studio owner is that kind. At Santoshpur, residents reported paying Rs 200 for 12 instant photos. In Chandni Chowk, Sreya Saha paid Rs 120 for six. In Ganguly Bagan, Soumita Saha paid Rs 80 for 10 after what she called an endless queue marathon. At Bijoygarh the average rate is Rs 70 for six, at Baghajatin Rs 60 for six.
With no fixed rate anywhere in the city, the price of a stamp-size photo – and how many you must get – now depends entirely on where you stand and how long you can wait.
There are, of course, unlikely heroes. On Raja Rammohan Roy Road, one studio owner is staying rooted. “We charge Rs 50 for nine copies,” he said. “We cannot do it instantly, but you will get the photos by evening. People are charging Rs 500 for the same thing. That is wrong.”
For now, the SIR wave continues. BLOs keep ringing doorbells, queues stretch like serpents across pavements, and printers whirr relentlessly from Behala to Baguiati.
