International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) Volume 5 Issue 6, September-October 2021 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470 @ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD46472 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 6 | Sep-Oct 2021 Page 629 A Study on the Role Played by Street Vendors in Our Daily Life and Impact of the COVID 19 on the Street Vendors Dr. Sumanta Bhattacharya 1 , Debashis Sen 2 , Bhavneet Kaur Sachdev 3 1Research Scholar at MAKAUT, Kolkata, West Bengal, India 2IAS, Chairman Cum Manager at West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation, West Bengal, India 3Political Science Hons, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India ABSTRACT We hope that the street vendor act of 2014, has and will continue to provide street vendors with their rights and protect them from further exploitation. India urban region has more than 1 million street vendors. Indian street food is famous across the globe with every tourist who come to India wants to try the street food. Metropolitan cities have the most amount of street vendors in particular Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmendabad. The street vendors open by their stalls at any place, you find them even on the main roads and every lane, which has given rise to congestion and traffic jam on the roads, the Delhi government has decided to allocate specific places in the city for street vendors and make mandatory their license. In Delhi there are more than 3 lac vendors but only 1,25,000 are legally recognized, the government has also taken measures to improve the condition of women street vendors. Street vendors have also been vendor of exploitation by the police and local municipality, where majority of the people depend on the street vendors for the purchase of their daily needs, with less price, which can provide profit to both consumer and sellers. It is an important element of urban economy and lifeline of majority of the people daily meal. KEYWORDS: Street vendors, Delhi, street vendor act, legal, exploitation, urban economy, license How to cite this paper: Dr. Sumanta Bhattacharya | Debashis Sen | Bhavneet Kaur Sachdev "A Study on the Role Played by Street Vendors in Our Daily Life and Impact of the COVID 19 on the Street Vendors" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-6, October 2021, pp.629-634, URL: www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd46472.pdf Copyright © 2021 by author (s) and International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development Journal. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) INTRODUCTION In India, 81 % of the workforce is employed under the informal sector, Employment is a crucial issue. Today, India is act such a position that we have educated youths who are unemployed young engineers, in spite of high qualification from different sectors people are not getting jobs. Majority of the people are leaving India, in search of better jobs, if we talk about USA they have more Indian doctors and engineers, where the condition of India is day by day deteriorating. From hotel management, you find in USA there are chains of hotels run by the Gujarat community. India Diaspora are at a great profit and are more successful in abroad. Coming to the employment sector, when we speak from rural India perspective you farming, horticulture, fishery culture, poultry and non agricultural activities like construction, traders, handicrafts, small shops etc. Indian urban parts have of options but then every job will not satisfy your needs. You have a lot of profit in Business, people are working in Bank, IT hubs, we have PwC, Wipro, TATA Consultancy which takes in majority of the freshers, professors, teachers, government jobs, working in big companies which constitute 6.5 % of the workforce, people have their own start ups, many are self employed. Where 26.18 % are working in the Industry sector, 32.33% are working the service sector and agriculture consist of 41.19%. A total of 501 million workers are in India. As per 2018 report 31 million people are unemployed in India, due to COVID the number has risen with many loosing their job both in the formal and informal sector. India and Nepal are among the top countries which constitute 90.7 % where the employees are working in the informal structure among all the South Asian countries, Bangladesh has 48.9%, Sri Lanka has 60.6% and Pakistan constitute 77.6%. The growing youth are working in the informal sector with no job they have to change their IJTSRD46472 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470 @ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD46472 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 6 | Sep-Oct 2021 Page 630 stream or find some temporary jobs, many have started their start ups, with the advancement in technology, we see a lot of young youth who have started their career as Youtubers where they become motivational speakers, influencers, some turn to become an online chef, start their own class on YouTube, from which they earn money, this can be considered for people who have access to Internet are educated and modern in terms have acute knowledge on IoT and knows the pro and cons of it. Now coming to the poor society who can’t afford such kind of job because of their lack of education and digital literacy, they end up finding jobs in the construction sites, open up small shops and many are self employed in the form street vendors in India. Research Methodology For the purpose of this exploration, I have used a amalgamation of two of the archetypical social sciences research tools application –as they are authentic and brilliant method to assemble statistics from multiple appellant in an methodical and convenient way. Question were asked to the common youth, public policy Analyst, urban people, slum dwellers, survey, interviews –consisting of several interrogation which were dispersed among representative of each contender group. Objective of the Research Paper The main areas of exploration in this paper incorporates 1. Street vendors in India and their role in the society. 2. Lockdown and the situation of street vendors: analysis 3. What initiative has the government taken to support street vendors and the also the new regulation formed for street vendors. 4. What is the future of street vendors in India with rising population Literature Review From the Social perspective, we may define Street Vendors as a person who sells goods to the public of a particular area or locality by reaching to the public (Consumers) directly. The Stores of the Street Vendors are not fixed or permanent in nature. The hawkers are also included in the term street Vendors, they usually sell their goods by carrying with them and travelling with the passengers in the local Public Transports. Street Vendors are both male and female person, but sometimes the children belonging to very poor families also take part in it. The Street Vendors are found all over the world but specifically in South Asian, African, and Latin American countries. Street Vendors are one of the most economically weaker sections of society. These types of sellers depend on their daily wages or earning and they are not much educationally qualified. The numbers of Street Vendors are increasing in the cities and urban areas of developing countries. India has the most number of street vendors who are also the depressed majority of the society. India’s population is growing, it is home to 1.3 billion people and provides work to 501 million people over all. Urban India, has many self employed people working as street vendors, who earn 40,000 per month on any average. India has the largest street vendor chain, where majority of the people have food from these street vendors, street vendors are also the one who sell fruits and vegetables. There is hardly any street vendor who runs in loss, as majority of the office employed working in the formal sector eat from them, In India the value and the earning of a chaiwala is much more than the average income of a person who is employed in an private sector., a revenue of 1800 per hour and in a day he makes a profit of 4200 per day in 7 hours, with a revenue of 12,600 along with that they sell some chicken peas. There are lakh of tea stall in India and million of people consumer chai on a daily note from these tea stall. India run of chai, even if you talk about some cafes, restaurant or dhaba, the demand for chai remains the same. An even a street vendor selling normal food has earns a lot per day. Street vendors don’t have a exact location where they start their work, they are usually found outside colleges, schools and officers where majority of the people travel on a daily basis and they know these place will profit them maximum profit, there are many street vendors who travel from one place to another selling foods, like we have cycle Dosa in Mumbai, Gujarat, Bike sandwich in Surat, You have truck stalls, the government of India haven’t specified an location or rulers for the street vendors, at times these street vendors start their business on the main road or in lanes which has resulted in traffic jams and many a times accident. We see people selling fruits and vegetables on the road side, the rising air pollution and green house gases emission makes the road side food even healthy. In other countries in the world you don’t see so many street vendors on the road, moreover they have Licence for opening up their stalls with proper hygiene maintained, Many of people avoid street food in India because of poor hygiene and rising pollution. During this pandemic the street vendors have suffered a lot, they were dependent on daily wages for their living and most of these vendors are migrant workers, coming from villages or small towns in big cities. Its been 2 years almost since the lockdown is on and off, the cases are rising, the government had allowed the street vendors to reopen after the mid July in 2020, International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470 @ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD46472 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 6 | Sep-Oct 2021 Page 631 again we see in 2021 there is a lockdown and the street vendors of India are at a vulnerable state. Findings The Concept of Street Vendors as we know in today's civilized society, it is quite illogical to expect their Economic and structural development unlike we find in Small Businesses and Online Businesses. The street vendors seem to be an untouched small local business majority which remained limited within the 'Streets' only without having any online abundance or a Virtual Gateway. Besides, those street vendors are one of those sections of society who are economically weak and mostly oppressed lower business class both in Rural and Urban areas. India ‘s 14 % of the workforce forms the street vendors. India has around 10 million street vendors. Cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmendabad has the largest number of street vendor found in every lane and corner of the city. Delhi, the capital of India has more than 450,000 street vendors, people living their day night each food from these street vendors, street food is the life of Delhi people, legal vendors are 1,25,000 in which 30 % are women. Mumbai has 250,000, Kolkata 150,000 above and Ahmendabad has 100,000.In India we have different type of street vendors which are Hawker Dukandars, rehr-patri walla, footpath, sidewalk traders and many more. There are many street vendors who don’t have a license yet, there are opening in their stall anywhere on the road which are having their own consequence. The government of India in 2014 finally brought in the Street Vendor Act, to give legal recognition to these street vendor, earlier there was a urban street vendors policy in 2004, which was revised in 2019, and finally we have the 2014 Act to give legal rights to the street vendors. Every state in India, has street vendors where as the metros and the big cities have a humongous number. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470 @ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD46472 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 6 | Sep-Oct 2021 Page 632 In Delhi, there was no registration done for the street vendor earlier thus no one is able to avail the loan and schemes introduced by the Delhi government and the centre, the National Association of street vendors declared. Mumbai has 2.5 vendors out which only 15,000 have licences, as most of the vendors don’t have license, they are exploited by the police and municipal authority. The street vendor (Protection of livelihood and regulation of street vending) Act 2014 was formed to protect the rights in public space. The Act also called for the creation of Town vending committees in various region to ensure that they are identified by the government. During this lockdown the street vendors have been no source of income the government under the SVANidhi scheme provided working loan up to 10,000 rupees for vendor, digital transaction was done, for all the street vendor who have been in the business on and before the lockdown was declared will receive the benefit. A package of 5000 crore was given to 50 Lakh vendors. After the unlock started, the street vendors where given training about the safety measures to be carried out during COVID-19, in many places the street vendors who had come from their villages have not opened their shops or stall being more than one and an half year. It is not just the 5 cities where you find so many street vendors, we have many street vendors in the Uttar Pradesh cities of Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, the we have Madhya Pradesh, which has provided loan disbursements to more than 1.25 Lakh vendors, Telangana 53,777, Andhra Pradesh 15,992, Chhattisgarh 8,993, Jharkhand 6413, Tami Nadu 8389, Maharashtra 13,021, Gujarat 18,747, Uttar Pradesh a total of 2,26,728 were provided the benefit of PM Svanidhi scheme. Indore, Bhopal and Hyderabad were also among the cities to provide street vendor with the required beneficiaries. Street vendors are people who sell fruits, vegetables, food, utensils and clothes on the road side. The growing population and demand for employment has led many people to work as street vendors to sustainable themselves, but this street vendors are responsible for creating dirty and waste on the roads, where in any other countries like US, UK and Japan there are strict rules and regulations for these people followed by they can’t open their stall anywhere on the road and they have particular allocated place and every needs to have a license and the same thing is starting in India, in Delhi through the Town vending committee was started in 2019. The supreme court has allowed Delhi government to allocate specific location where these street vendors would sell their product. In India majority of the people purchase fruits and vegetables from these street vendors very few go to the super market, as street vendor sell products as a reasonable price and you can bargain, where 70 % of the people are middle class, street vendors products are a lot of them, the rich community in India go to super market. Street vendor also amplify the economy of India, where the tourist come to India, they move around trying the street foods, which is very famous, every state has its own special food and demand. We can say street vendor are an integral part of the urban society where every household purchase or eat from street stalls. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470 @ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD46472 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 6 | Sep-Oct 2021 Page 633 Way Forward Street vendors have a strong connection with the formal sector and play a significant role in the growth of the economy, there are billions of people who depend on street vendors from purchasing fruits and vegetables and buying of clothes and utensils, There are million of people who drink eat every day from chai stalls and eat food from these mini stalls located in different parts of the city. The street vendors have many a times been exploited and been a product of accidents. Starting anywhere on a stall on the street has become legal, it has given rise to congestion, people face problems while walking on the road, traffic jams have increased and with rapid air pollution, it will make the food unhealthy when sell on the main road. We need to introduce license for every street vendor in India and allocate particular location where there can open their stalls. clear restriction on street vendors on the main road. There should be provided with identity cards and every where there should be a check on their work, they need to maintain proper hygiene. We need to give street vendors an online virtual platform that shall be accessible to the global market along with a transparent and simplified banking transaction system. There is a need for Bank loans for new start- ups, and online transactions need a corruption-free process. The taxation process shall be done through GST in a simplified manner. All these need to include women and child safety, health and medical policies, sanitization facilities, a hygienic system, and electric facilities for the vendors. Conclusion With growing population and migration many people are working in the informal sector, with no proper regulation and identity card formed for the street vendors, any one come up and open their stall on the road, they don’t have to pay any rent for the location, some people travel in intervals from one location to another selling their food other products. When these street vendors come on the main road and narrow lanes where traffic is high, there are high chances of accident and congestion on that road and moreover there is no walking space left, also leading to dirt and International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470 @ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD46472 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 6 | Sep-Oct 2021 Page 634 polluting the atmosphere which requires change, with the street vendor act we expect things to get better with less exploitation and street vendor get their rights in public space. 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