India, March 21 -- The market shops are shuttered, the main street is deserted, but the darkened corridors are filled with sleeping men. Some of the men are lying flat on mats unrolled along the floor, others are sprawled atop parked carts and rickshaws, their legs up due to lack of space.

These are hundreds of labourers who live and work in Old Delhi's Chawri Bazar. The market's name is thought by some to have originated from a Marathi word for "meeting place." Certainly in the old times, young men from noble families would come here to meet the Chawri Bazar courtesans. At some point the courtesans moved elsewhere, and Chawri was transformed into a market for copper, brass and paper products-some paper merchants call it India's biggest ...