Community Centre, Kasturba Nagar, Jwala Nagar - One public hearing conducted in Kasturba Nagar shed light on the issues faced by street vendors during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
Their narratives ranged from loss of livelihood, reduced income, increased debts, and harassment by officials. Even before the pandemic, their earning was minimal and it worsened since the pandemic as their income faced a 70% reduction. Owing to the loss of livelihood, they had to resort to borrowing money from friends, relatives, moneylenders, etc. Many of them also resorted to selling assets to meet family expenses.
In the community, not many contracted the virus, and those who did, duly recovered. While they weren’t afraid of the virus, they did struggle with the policy implementation that was established to battle the same.
Vendors including Town Vending Committee members demanded the strict implementation of the Street Vendors Act, 2014.