Kamarhati is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).

With the partition of Bengal in 1947, "millions of refugees poured in from erstwhile East Pakistan.

Squatting (jabardakhal in Bengali) ranged from the forcible occupation of barracks to the collective take-over of private, government and waste land.

The squatters were in a way "self-settlers" in the absence of adequate official arrangements for rehabilitation.

Within a very short time the refugees (quite often with government or administrative support) not only found a place to stay but developed a society with markets, schools, temples and sometimes even colleges, hospitals and recreational centres.

The sacred Dakshineshwar Kali Temple is situated in Kamarhati Municipal area.

[10][11] As per the 2011 Census of India, Kamarhati had a total population of 330,211, of which 170,293 (52%) were males and 159,918 (48%) were females.

Medical facilities are College of Medicine & Sagore Dutta Hospital (with 150 beds) at Kamarhati, ESI Hospital at Kamarhati, Sri Ramkrishna Matrimangal at Ariadaha, Sahid Khudiram Health Institute at Belgharia and Arogya at Belgharia.

It offers honours courses in Bengali, English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, history, philosophy, political science, geography, education, physical education, physics, chemistry, mathematics, botany, zoology, physiology, economics, electronics, computer science, accountancy and general BA, BSc and B Com courses.

It offers honours courses in Bengali, English, Sanskrit, sociology, history, political science, philosophy, education, journalism, music, geography, economics, zoology, botany, food & nutrition, psychology, chemistry and general courses in BA and B Sc.

North 24 Parganas district has been identified as one of the areas where ground water is affected by arsenic contamination.