By Benjamin Gondaimei
Globalisation and Street Vendors
Globalisation has become a much talk issue in our context today mixed with Neo-liberalisation. It has encroached in varying degrees into the local economies. It has brought rapid and radical social changes for everyone. Those who get profit out of it through manipulation will praise Globalisation as their saviour but for those who are affected will take it as a dangerous threat to life.
Impact of globalisation on tribal women has a mix feeling. Majority of the women in Tribal areas in North East India belongs to marginalised section of the society. They are victims of multiple forms of oppression because of the fact that they are indigenous and they are women, added to the fact that majority of the women are cultivators living in abject poverty in villages. For the poor women who are involved in the street vending work, ecological deterioration, displacement, unemployment and gender violence are widened. Globalisation further reinforced their subordination rather than liberation, with capitalism and materialism taking its place, the poor has become poorer.
Globalisation provides mobility and job opportunities for tribal women and this has provided the scope for self employment of street vending. There is a big migration from villages to towns in search of job, and many tribal women have become street vendors in various towns and cities. Women after their day work do not end their work coming home, they continue their traditional domestic functions as homemakers and nurturers. In the villages women are overworked but at the same time they lack balance diet and nutritional food.
Globalisation is purely for economic purpose. It speaks only about market and its slogan is market-orientation and consumer delight. The neo-liberal economic paradigm of global free markets has benefited only a small minority of rich people. This neo-liberal globalisation has created massive inequalities. Due to liberalisation of market and free inflow of foreign goods, local markets are flooded with foreign goods. Only small portion of vegetable women street vendors do own their sale of local produces, whereas most of the finished goods come from other outside areas, and especially, Manipur the corridor to Myanmar where many of foreign goods are imported, which has overflowed the local shops.
Even though there are avenues to sit as vegetable vendors, the struggle of local women never ends struggling double the burden which local Zeliangrong women had struggled in the past years before much development work came in. These women street vendors are branded as poor, uncivilised, backward and lower in status. These poor women street vendors who mostly depend on their agricultural produces have a very little chance of survival in this system, because technologically women are no educated properly and are not advanced.
The Contributions
There are lots to which women street vendors have contributed to in the implications of livelihood which has been both the bread winner for the family and the backbone of the society. Through the struggles for the livelihood through tears and sweat it is roughly viewed which revealed ways in which street vendors strengthen their communities:
Most street vendors provide the main source of income for their households, bringing food to their families and paying school fees for their children.
These street vendors provide raw materials, food, medicinal herbs and different items which saves lives.
These informal workers have strong linkages to the formal economy and have shape the society in different levels.
Many vendors try to keep the streets clean and safe for their customers and provide them with friendly personal service.
Street vendors create jobs, not only for themselves but for porters, security guards, transport operators, storage providers, and others.
They provided easy and cheap meals and items for the travellers.
Street trade also adds vibrancy to urban life and in many places is considered a cornerstone of historical and cultural heritage.
Street vendors who sell roasted maize, sweet potatoes, papaya are an important part of Zeliangrong’s cultural heritage which is a daily phenomenon in every home today. They go in action and innovate the centuries-old practice to meet the demands of the present. If the food which has been cook for early lunch has been eaten up, then, fruits like papaya, banana, roasted maize, boil yam and sweet potatoes are prepared for the children and the elders to be taken during afternoon.
Despite their contributions, street vendors face many challenges, are often overlooked as economic agents and unlike other businesses, are hindered rather than helped by municipal policies and practices.
Thrust for Livelihood
Livelihood struggles in the Tamenglong District of Manipur among women is hard. Women from their kitchen fire hearth to field and market is their three-tier ways of struggle. There are women who go to street vending, do not necessarily escape field, forest and physical labour. There are sections of women from the villages who would wake up early in the morning, do their household chores, feed their children, husband, domestic animals and send their children to school and run to the field and forest to collect their produces to be sold in the market. These women has double burden to keep their family run.
The struggles do not only lie with their domestic and physical problems. But, social and political scenario of the state is very much involved in their struggles for their livelihood. Manipur is a state where there are frequent bandhs, protest, strike and economic blockade, it happens because of the state apathy or the other reasons towards any community or tribes. These protest or strike is hitting hard on women street vendors who struggle their life through business in the market. The closure of road, market and vehicles staying off the road has brought much hardship in their struggles for livelihood. Women whose means of livelihood are from street vending and market business has to borrow money on loan for their family needs and pay it off while they have another earning in the coming days.
Health and mental stability also has its stake to hold on their business. While women being the main economic role player of the family, their physical health stability is very much required. They cannot accept the defeat of sickness on their health. As they have double burden and two role to play as a mother and bread winner. Their attention on their health tends to get neglected and thus they are prone to get sick.
Weather, climatic which triggers natural calamities or vice versa condition is equally important in their struggles for livelihood. There are terms and years where flood and soil erosion has triggered hardship for the people who live from hand to mouth. Zeliangrong people living in Tamenglong district mostly live in hilly terrain. With incessant fall of rain or draught people has to suffer on their economic condition. Loss of field by landslide or flood has happened frequently. The produces are reduced and sales have become less.
Women at Longmai Area sitting as street vendors live mostly hand to mouth; they do not have permanent income to support their family. The women who work here has different categories; as supplier and as vendors who waited for the customers to pass them by and buy their goods. They struggled mostly in groups or quills to find their produces from the forest. The tribal women of Zeliangrong survived through collecting of raw materials from the forest and from their owned fields and gardens. They are early birds who would wake up at the dawn break and cooked their food and eat their lunch as early as 7 am and rush for their works. The whole half of the day they would be collecting plantain leaves and other forest produces and takes them back to their home by evening and sells it for customers waiting for their goods. These customers are another batch of women vendors who would take them to the market and sale it vending and hawking in the street.
There are women who go and sell door to door begging people to buy their vegetables. Their struggles depend on the weather condition and on the political scenario of the state. Economic blockage and bandh, protest and strikes are worst problem for them. Manipur is known as land of protest and blockage. Hurdles created by bandh and blockage have double the struggle of women vendors who has to worry about feeding their families. With being imposed by Armed Forces Special Power Act in the state, the terror and fear factor or psychological fear created among the public and especially women is a grave concern. The fear of entering into the forest for fear of being molested and rape by Army Jawans created very few chances for people to survive normally. The causes as being state above became a hurdle, where in every week of the month and the whole month there would be protest month or an economic blockage. During these protest and economic blockage, these women cannot take their items to the market nor have their sale. On defying these bandh and blockage, the volunteers of certain organization who supports bandh and blockage would halt their goods on the way or destroy them.
Women who have no other means of income would have to struggle double to look out for other means of survival during strikes, protest if the trend of bandh and blockage continues and prolongs its duration.
There are hundreds of households and families whose livelihood is shouldered by women. Sickness and ill health are other nightmare that haunts them. Their everyday prayers are to keep them healthy and have a fatty resources sale. On this heavy burden, they do not have customers like in the cities who buzz around the whole day. Some women just wait on the road for passenger bus, taxis, trucks and private vehicles to stop by and buy their vegetables or fruits.
Bad road conditions and bad transportation facilities become one of the worst conditions. They do not have the facilities to transport their goods to the market. Vehicle are rare, only few vehicle from District Head Quarter ply early in the morning towards the capital a day. The pathetic condition of transportation is a daring challenge.
Women from the remote villages are quite reserved; there are also instances of some women who do not wish to disclose their everyday work activities. With the upbringing tradition of patriarchal society, feelings of inferiority complex has instilled among women against the tide of this challenging world..
With the everyday situation among the society that assassinate the character of women and their privacy, women who are not acquainted and well informed of the prevailing situations and environment tend to shy away from the researches that would light up their situation and their problems.
With their words of ignorance, deeming that they are not qualified to any queries that one would asked, their response of “I don’t know anything, I am not educated, I can’t disclose my problems, struggles and about my work in Street vendors” are common form of words that one would here from the fieldwork.
Even though women vend around, the productivity of women are controlled by men within the household and outside. Within the households women provide all kinds of free service to their children, husbands and other members of the family. Women’s labour is expropriated by their husbands and others who live there. Although women and housewives who go vending are producing class, and doing of repetitive labour is not considered work at all and women are seem to be dependent on their husbands.
Women are forced to sell their labour and and prevent them from working, men appropriate what women earn, they selectively allow them to work intermittently. The irregular pattern of work and street vending fluctuates the earning of livelihood in many ways.
In doing the labour of street vending, the pressure of customary practices, emotional pressure, social sanctions and plain violence prevented them from acquiring control over the work. Personal laws sometimes curtail them from their own rights. As illustrated by United Nation statistics, Basin viewed that “women do more than 60% of the hours of work done in the world, but they get only 10% of the world’s income and own 1% of the world’s property” even though women work as street vendors, the control over the economic system and institution was within the frame of patriarchal society and direct economic activity and determine the value. Most production work done by women is neither recognized or paid for as women’s role as producers and rearers of children and of labour power is not considered an economic contribution at all.
Traditional ways of farming and mode of production has been destroyed violently under capitalism and neoliberalism. With machine and chemical farming growing up in an alarming rate, the village mothers who go street vending cannot compete the fast growing production of machine goods. There have been tremendous struggles not as human alone but as bearing the oldest heritage of humankind in mode of production. Street vending in the hill districts of Tamenglong has meagre income and fluctuates according to season. Studies of tribal society show that women initially played a greater and more equal role.
Street Vendors and Focus on Chronic Hunger and Poverty
There are no proper study groups or assessment agencies dealing on the poverty of the local tribal of Manipur. Because, many of the tribal people live sufficiently collecting their own agricultural produces and forest resources for their intake. That, assessment of poverty line becomes difficult in the tribal areas where they have their own produces yet, counting on the basis of money per/day spent is meticulously less and not at all by many of the people living in the villages.
Earning is hard and the process of selling off their produces takes lots of energy. The tribal people especially the Zeliangrong people do not follow the hygienic rules but there stable food is rice and changes of their intake varies according to the changes of the season and time. There are many families too who struggle more than the others as they have no enough food to eat. With tremendous heavy workload the less intake of food leads them to linking hunger and sub-nutrition with inadequate food intake which allows the measurement of food insecurity in terms of the availability and apparent consumption of staple foods or energy intake. This type of measurement corresponds to the earlier narrower definitions of chronic food insecurity.
National estimates are based on average per capita availability of staple foods, or apparent consumption. The estimates may also be weighted by evidence of food expenditure by income categories for countries where consumer expenditure surveys are not available. Because poverty lines, such as those calculated by the World Bank, also reflect assumptions about dietary energy intake, there is inevitably a high degree of correlation in these cases with estimates of poverty and extreme poverty.
It also notes that groups of variables that reflect shocks and agricultural productivity growth are significant influences in explaining periodic differences in performance.
The trends in food security, as in poverty, may not be fully evident at a national level. Therefore, an investigation of a process such as trade liberalization that involves cross-country comparisons should be sensitive to possibly important variability within larger economies. This implies the need for regional analyses to complement country level investigations.
Poor absorption and poor biological use of nutrients consumed has lead to sub-nutrition. The most convenient assumption for an agricultural economic analysis would be to ignore these factors. However, and gain the current crisis in the local areas to serve as a reminder, there may be significant differences even in the countries and within the countries in these factors and the way they are changing. People may become more vulnerable, and so the economy more fragile and sensitive to ever-smaller shocks. This is also a reason for reassessing the importance of transitory, acute food insecurity.
Multi-dimensional phenomenon
Food security is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. National and international political action seems to require the identification of simple deficits that can be the basis for setting of targets, thus necessitating the adoption of single, simplistic indicators for policy analysis. Something like the “State of global food insecurity” analysis has to be undertaken. Since food insecurity is about risks and uncertainty, the formal analysis should include both chronic sub-nutrition and transitory, acute insecurity that reflects economic and food system volatility.
Such formal exploration is usefully complemented by multi-criteria analysis (MCA) of food security. This should lead to qualitative, if not quantitative, comparisons. Where the focus of investigation is on sub-nutrition, then the linkages between sub-nutrition and inadequate food intake need to be carefully explored. Some elements that need to be considered are:
sources of dietary energy supply – taking account, for example, of different foods, trends in the acquisition of food from subsistence to marketing;
climatic variability as a source of volatility and short-term nutritional stress;
health status, especially changes in the incidence of communicable diseases, most obviously HIV/AIDS;
spatial distribution within countries of poverty and forms of food insecurity, drawing on evidence from vulnerability assessment and mapping supported by the Food Information and Vulnerability Mapping Systems (FIVIMS), the FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) interagency initiative.
It can be mockery to tell someone they have the right to food when there is nobody with the duty to provide them with food. That is the risk with the rights rhetoric.
Food Security
One of the world’s most pressing issue is that Today, about 800 million people go without sufficient food. As a company dedicated to nourishing people, Cargill is committed to increasing food security around the world. Food security exists when all people have access to sufficient amounts of safe, nutritious and affordable food to provide the foundation for active and healthy lives. Food security is a complex problem given interconnections and interdependencies in a global food system that is fundamentally dependent on soil, precipitation and water availability, climate and a host of services the earth provides and at the same time influenced significantly by trade, urbanization, changing demographics, and energy, water and land use policy.
The researcher tries to look at the concept of chronic food insecurity faced by the poor women street vendors, and the implications for measurement, and suggests the need for a complementary investigation into the implications for transitory food insecurity of trade liberalization which the women street vendors are facing.
The world needs to produce at least 50% more food to feed 9 billion people by 2050. But climate change could cut crop yields by more than 25%. The land, biodiversity, oceans, forests, and other forms of natural capital are being depleted at unprecedented rates. Unless we change how we grow our food and manage our natural capital, food security, especially for the world’s poorest will be at risk.
Already, volatile food prices and the price spikes that can result are the new normal. When faced with high food prices, many poor families cope by pulling their children out of school and eating cheaper, less nutritious food. This can have severe life-long effects on the social, physical, and mental well-being of millions of young people. Malnutrition contributes to infant, child, and maternal illness; decreased learning capacity; lower productivity, and higher mortality. One-third of all child deaths globally are attributed to under-nutrition.
Investment in agriculture and rural development to boost food production and nutrition is a priority for the World Bank Group. The Bank Group works with partners to improve food security and build a food system that can feed everyone, everywhere, every day. Activities include encouraging climate-smart farming techniques and restoring degraded farmland, breeding more resilient and nutritious crops and improving storage and supply chains for reducing food losses. Whereas food security scheme is mostly benefited by the rich then the poor, the powerful exercise their authority over the system and hovers their pride over the grains of food which is meant for the poor and the hapless. It is just recently that patches of food security scheme have touched down the throat of these poor women who best struggled for their livelihood. The scheme reached them by mid August, 2016 which the agents sold for them at the exorbitant price of 15 rupees in the villages. Thus, viewing their struggle, the curiosity has built them up to expect something in return while in the process of interviewing and going for a field work. The sense of the loss of security materially and socially can be seen in their perception of expectation.
Increasing Urgency
Food and nutrition security affects human health and welfare, as well as economic and political stability. Tamenglong is known to the most underdeveloped district in Manipur to address the problem of growth and development and to address the challenges of poverty, malnutrition and rural poverty across the district. Around the world, the effects of weather-related supply shocks on food commodities persist, as does discussion about the future impact of climate change on agriculture.
The Challenge. Underdevelopment, population growth and income growth – along with climate change and water scarcity – together pose significant challenges to achieving food security faced by the populace of Tamenglong and women and children are most exposed to the risk.
The Issues. Major obstacles to food security include extreme poverty, inadequate food distribution, supply disruptions, food waste, government policies that inhibit trade and negatively affect farmers, frequent bandh, blockade and strike, environmental impact, growing resistance to the use of some agricultural technology and price volatility.
Solutions & Responses. We believes food security can be improved by honoring comparative advantage, enabling open markets, supporting smallholder farmers, enabling people to realize its food production potential, leveraging technology, improving nutrition, fostering cooperation between public and private sectors, and encouraging agricultural investment.
Our Perspective. We believe the state will be able to feed its growing population. We are optimistic that sufficient food can be produced to meet the needs of an increasingly prosperous world through the resilience and adaptation of farmers; the use of technology to improve yields sustainably; and the effectiveness of market-based approaches.
Curiousity
The curiousity of the womenfolk in the mid of interview and experiencing their life situation is another factor that reveals the scarcity of development and schemes from the government end. The acute face of absolute poverty and relative poverty are seen through their revelation on how they have been cheated by the bureaucrats and politicians.
On querying of and asking of their help and answers for the interview; most of the women curiously asked of any new development and schemes coming to their aid. They longed for help as they have been abandoned by the authorities. The tribal women who struggle so hard could not even spell out their needs as there was no any awareness or seminar held for them in the past to meet their end of social and economic justice.
Women Empowerment
Empowerment means that people both men and women can take control over their lives; set their own agendas, gain skill, increase self confidence, solve problems and develop self reliance. It is both a process and an outcome. The status of women in the society has been look down as second citizen, especially in a traditional bound society, the sphere of women has been reduce to the dictates of the male. The customary laws of the tribal has been somehow very rigid, having no space for women to have its role in decision making, attending any village authority meeting, women becoming leader of the village making it taboo to have its leadership over men.
There is every need to empower women in every walk of life to make women have different outlook and take their potentiality capable and use every bit of their talent and resource for the benefit of the society.
Empowerment
Women vendors have Joint Street vending in their own volition to sustain the economy of the people. Zeliangrong women who were once focused to domestic work under the guidance of the patriarchal vigil and order now have come out of their cocoon to find a way of life that interest them having the sense of freedom. Till these days women from Zeliangrong community have very few spaces in decision making. The village council or PEI does not include women to discuss core issues related to village social and political affairs. Yet, women have to take themselves out to the street to keep their family alive. They have taken such decision to empower themselves that they do not rely on someone’s sweat and tears.
Knowing the struggles of their families and poverty, they have to either find something to eat. Begging was not an option among the Zeliangrong community, one must labour to live. While some mothers who does street vending have taken themselves to such business is that, they are illiterate, and do not have much knowledge and degrees to work in other agencies, street vending have come as their only source to earn for their living. Most of the families do not own water paddy field and they cannot work any longer in shifting cultivation; in order to save environment and have an alternative source of income apart from destroying forest and trees, their option lies on street vending, and this is one of their main aim.
While interviewing them, they have expressed the feelings of importance and self esteem. They now sense that they are not the consumer anymore, but a producer who is now a backbone of the society. Male counterparts have begin to respect them more than what they have been doing as they have become the source of income in some ways or the other. They love what they do and they would serve their families and the society in general through their work was their comments. They feel that, they are exercising their rights through street vending; because they do what they love to do, have come out from their domestic chores to fulfilling the needs of the society.
They have got experiences through street vending, they met people from different walks of lives, have learn how to communicate with people in different ways; they have the greatest feeling that, they now have the chance to serve people and help people through their work. Women Street vendors vending across Zeliangrong inhabitate areas feels that they are now at least self sufficient up to some extend even though they are not rich like others. They at least feel that they do not have to go and beg people for their food, clothing and shelter.
They are happy with their work and many customers and commuters have appreciated them for doing a noble job. They are empowered mentally and economically having the sense of self esteem as they brave the patriarchal dominated society.
The women vendors involving in street vending have enable them to fight their own fears, inferiority complex and inadequacy. There is a feeling of economic independence and self reliance in the individual and household level. The market where women vend together has become a platform to form their action group and learning the political and societal activities of the contemporary. They have created their own source of employment opportunities, gender equality and social mobility. They have learned ethical values in regards to caring, kindness, nurturing, and social values promoting qualities of life. Reducing the workload at home and learning to inculcate distribution of work.
Women empowerment is still a process which needs the involvement of social institutions to change the conditions that fundamentally leads to women empowerment.
Women contribution through street vending has directly or indirectly brings livelihood implication which brings better security and welfare to the whole family. The implications has brought changes in the living standard of the entire household and has effective spending on their personal lives improving their status in the society. Economically they are empowered through street vending which has led them to raise their families through their earning even though the amount may be of small scale.
After they joint the street vending business they are empowered even in the decision making and policy making in the family. When they are economically empowered they are also empowered in decision making, they gain their personal autonomy to decide what suits for them. They have the bargaining power in the decision making in the power struggles between the spouses.
Women have gain the bargaining power in what is best for the family even though husband took the upper hand in decision making, yet women have the ability to decide what clothes to purchase, food purchase, needs of the children, work distribution. Medical treatment, family recreation, children’s education are areas where husband took higher hands.
Organisationally, they are empowered; they joined in different institutions from church, Nisha Bandh, Women societies where they have their voice in the decision making. They also wanted the formation of strong women street vendors’ organisation to look into the problems for individuals and collectively ensuring the good of the women street vendors.
Politically, they have their voice through electoral process. In the social organisations women do have a strong voice in the decision making which interfere the political affairs of the society. Democracy is a form of government where every individual exercise their adult franchise, thus, women have their voice in the electoral process of the state.
The power of being able to be the backbone of the family and the society, women have rose up from their cocoon to be the bread winner to many of the families and having their own independence economically.
The building of their confidence in fighting against any odds and facing the world has come from the very little step of becoming a street vendor. After they are exposed to the society at large, they are well acquainted with the social and political conditions of the present society. They are well informed of the happenings which has help them to build their business at which course they should be taking forward in the future.
Policy for Women Employment
There is a need to formulate a proper policy for women’s employment which should included strategies for challenging the sex division of labour and gender ideology inside as well as outside the workplace. Policies should include: (a) access to employment, education, training, credit etc; (b) to improve the quality of employment; (c) just trade, equal wage for all irrespective of sex.
Education for capacity building
Education is a tool to humanize, to develop critical thinking, building capacities and creativity in a person’s life. A clear emphasis should be given to educating the poor women vendors especially. Women’s access to employment is limited because of the lack of education and skills. The government has a free education policy for both girls and boys. But among the dropouts from the school. Girls outnumbered in the villages. Therefore, education for critical awareness, vocational training and skills work should be provided to the women and girls. Invest in workplace policies and programmes that open avenues for advancement of women at all levels and across all business areas and encourage women to enter non-traditional job fields. Ensure equal access to all company-supported education programmes, including literacy classes, vocational and information technology training. To provide equal opportunities for formal and informal networking and mentoring and to articulate the business case for women’s empowerment and the positive impact of inclusion for men as well as women.
Enterprise Development- Supply Chain and Marketing Practices
To expand business relationships with women-owned enterprises, including small businesses and women entrepreneurship. Support gender sensitive solutions to credit and lending barriers. To ask business partners and peers to respect the company’s commitment to advancing equality and inclusion and respect the dignity of women in all marketing and other company materials. To ensure that company products, services and facilities are not used for human trafficking and labour or sexual exploitation.
Promoting Self-help group
Self-help group are organisation of women from the downtrodden section of society that empower women to be self reliant through capacity and confidence building and by making micro-credit available and accessible to women. Many rural women in the villages are benefited by this self-help group. We need to encourage developing self-help projects to improve the economic status send for self sufficiency of the persons in the community.
Communitarian value
To challenge the ever changing and individualism, we need to rediscover the indigenous people concept of community. In a society marked by individualism, competition and self-centeredness, the strong sense of community rootedness in the indigenous culture could be a wonderful asset to share with the postmodern individualised people. The indigenous people uphold a very strong communitarian concept of life based on communitarian sharing and resource distribution. Such communitarian principles should be restored where the poor have hope for future emancipation and live with dignity. We need to promote a just global economy of sharing and honesty.
Just and sustainability
Trade must not displace women and indigenous people. Any trade system must work for the benefit of the people and they should have access and control to the basic resources for livelihood. Tribal people practice jhum and shifting cultivation effectively. At present, commercialisation and urbanisation has reduced land area for food cultivation. The farmers cannot produce sufficient food for their families. Therefore, diverse farming like poultry and cattle farming, piggery, fruit preservation and cultivation, vegetables, flowers, etc. Should be introduced in the grass root level for self-sustaining and for self-sufficiency. Indigenous people need development and other infra structures development. But such development should be community welfare based oriented development not individual profit oriented.
Preservation of culture
Indigenous people must work hard to preserve and appreciate their culture, tradition, dresses, songs, music, dances, and festivals, through inculcating such values at home, schools, and other platforms. Many of our histories and experiences of the people are recorded in our dresses, ornaments, songs and folklores. Losing of such songs and dresses meant losing our cultural identity and historical legacies.
Equipping women for leadership
Lead by example, to showcase commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Leverage influence alone or in partnership, to advocate for gender equality and collaborate with business partners, suppliers and community leaders to promote inclusion and work with community stakeholders, officials and others to eliminate discrimination and exploitation and open opportunities for women and girls. To promote and recogbnise women’s leadership and contributions to their communities and ensure sufficient representation of women in any community consultation. Use philanthropy and grants programmes to support commitment to inclusion, equality and human rights. Leadership promotes gender equality, to affirm high-level support and direct top-level policies for gender equality and human rights. Women need to equip, empower and transform for effective leadership. Tribal women have been playing the submissive roles for many generations; it is high time to come out from that submissive cocoon and asserts their rights. The institutions in the society need to recognise and accept women as capable, and so develop democratic, participatory and sharing leadership between men and women. Until women are involved in leadership positions, justice for women cannot be achieved.
To establish goals and target for gender equality in include progress as a factor in managing their performance review. To engage internal and external stakeholders in the development of their work policies programmes and implementation plans that advance equality. To ensure that all policies are gender sensitive-identifying factors that impact women and men differently and that corporate culture advances equality and inclusion.
Equal Opportunity, inclusion and Non-discrimination
Pay equal remuneration, including benefits, for work of equal value and strive to pay a living wage to all women and men. To ensure that workplace policies and practices are free from gender-base discrimination and to implement gender-sensitive recruitment and retention practices and proactively recruit and appoint women to managerial and executive positions and to the corporate board of directors. Assure sufficient participation of women 33% or greater-in decision-making and governance at all levels and across all business areas. To offer flexible work option, leave and re-entry opportunities to positions of equal pay and status, and to support access top child and dependent care by providing services, resources and information to both women and men.
Health Safety and Freedom from Violence
Taking into account differential impacts on women and men, provide safe working conditions and protection from exposure to hazardous materials and disclose potential risks, including to reproductive health. Establish zero tolerance policy towards all forms of violence at work, including verbal and physical abuse and prevent sexual harassment. Strive to offer health insurance or other needed services including for survivors of domestic violence and ensure equal access for all employees. Respect women and men workers’ rights to time off for medical care and counselling for themselves and their dependents. In consultation with employees, identify and address security issues, including the safety of women travelling to and from work and train aware the public to recognise signs of violence against women and understand laws and on anti- human trafficking, labour and sexual exploitation
Women live with multiple identities which are often marginalized and oppressed. Violence, both visible and structural, creates barriers in their trade and ultimately in their lives. There are no social security measures and due to the nature of her job she is also deprived of education and other benefits in life. However, Zeliangrong women works tirelessly day after day and deconstructs the social constructs of gender, poverty, violence and so on to advocate for herself and her fellow vendors their rightful space in the society. Town planning fails to take stock of women demands and is often invisible and found in informal pockets. Women is often positioned where they cannot continue their trade for long due to lack of buyers. However, despite the challenges she continues to struggle with hope in ‘limited situations’ and is still very positive towards life.
Street as a public space is contested as it changes and takes various forms for many marginalized groups. Street vendors occupy one of the largest and most visible occupational groups in the informal economy which is found in the public space ‘street’. For instance, contemporary urban India has seen multiple transformations in the post-1991 period because of various forms of exclusion for the urban poor. A street vendor’s narrative in this socio-political scenario is not only captivating but it also shows how his or her social life and livelihood are regulated on the street through various forces.
Zeliangrong women enjoy a little grace unlike inappropriate license ceilings in cities which makes the street vendors prone to bribery and extortion under the local police and municipal authorities, besides harassment, heavy fines and sudden evictions. Women’s participation in the economy has been neglected and has often been invisible as they have been working primarily in the informal economy. Lack of exposure to the formal economy and the job market has kept their status in society also low despite their contributing substantially to the labour force. There have been many reasons why women’s work has been restricted to the informal sector wherein the work does not come under the purview of economic activities. As a result of this most of these women do not even realize their skill levels and competence.
Even today more than 80 per cent of the women workers are engaged in the informal sector which does not offer fair wages or even decent terms of work. Another important concern is the under-enumeration of women’s work in India. Only about 25 per cent of the Indian women reported that they were employed in 2004, the year preceding the National Family Health Survey III. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, there were more than 10 million (1 crore) street vendors in India, and Delhi had the second largest number of approximately 2,00,000 street vendors. Most of them were immigrants or laid-off workers, who on an average worked for 10–12 hours a day and remained impoverished. Women in the unorganized sector do not have regular employer-employee relationships, and so they work under conditions of economic and social insecurity. This sector includes workers in small manufacturing, street vending, domestic services and transport. The size of the unorganized sector has been growing and it now accounts for 91.5 per cent of the workforce. This includes the rural workforce as well. Studies have shown that the earnings of informal sector workers are about one-third that of formal sector workers. At the same time their work is insecure, in that they are not sure of their earnings the next day. The National Commission on Self-Employed Women Workers (1987) in the unorganized sector recorded this sector as one in which women do arduous work as piece-rated, casual or unpaid workers. The commission reported that women in the unorganized sector are paid extremely low wage rates with total lack of job security. Workers in the unorganized sector are also prone to exploitation, appalling working conditions and high risks of health hazards.The second National Commission on labour under the chairmanship of Shri Ravinder Verma submitted in the year 2002 proposed the umbrella legislation for the protection and welfare of workers in the unorganized sectors which mainly provides for the registration of such workers by providing them identity cards to them and setting up of State wise Unorganized sector welfare boards etc. Education, Training and Skill development and procedure of grievances redressal etc., is also provided in the proposed umbrella legislation. These provisions find mention today in the Bill on street vendors which has been passed recent lately. Conceptually, street vendors are one of the important components of the urban informal economy. This component is integrally related to the informal economy. Street vendors occupy a significant proportion of the total employment in the informal sector. Street vending units constitute a significant share of the total enterprises in the urban informal sector. Despite that street vendors face a lot of challenges and biases from local government representatives and also in urban policies and regulations. Street vendors are not wanted by the elite and thus they are often regarded as ‘eye sores’. ‘Decent work’ can be defined as protective work wherein the rights of workers, specifically their employment, income and social rights are protected. This can be achieved without compromising workers’ rights and social standards. This will ensure a reduction in poverty by increasing work opportunities, rights actualization at work, social protection and providing a voice to the workers which in turn will result in improving workers’ capabilities and their overall well-being.
Public space or street vending areas is a common property resource, it is not static; it is a shifting resource whose boundaries may change quickly over time as a result of social negotiation. Another issue addressed in literature is that government interventions towards the informal sector are particularly related to its business operations. Those in the informal sector do their work in areas that can be called public spaces and street and which were originally not meant for trading purposes. As a result the most common issue that crops up due to vending in these areas is that of legal and illegal areas. This makes the traders victims of harassment and threats from the police and other government authorities.
“A street vendor is a person who offers goods or services for sale to the public without having a permanently built structure but with a temporary static structure or mobile stall (or head-load).” Street vendors could be stationary and occupy space on the pavements or other public/private areas, or could be mobile, and move from place to place carrying their wares on push carts or on cycles or baskets on their heads, or could sell their wares in moving buses. The Government of India has used the term “urban vendor” as inclusive of traders and service providers, stationary as well as mobile, and incorporates all other local/region specific terms used to describe them such as hawker, pheriwalla, rehri-patriwalla, footpath dukandars, sidewalk traders and more. The recent Protection of Street Vendors and Regulation of the Street Vending Bill states that a street vendor is a person engaged in vending of articles, goods, wares, food items or merchandise of everyday use or offering services to the general public on a street, lane, side walk, footpath, pavement, public park or any other public place or private area or from a temporary built up structure or by moving from place to place, and includes hawkers, peddlers, squatters and all other synonymous terms which may be local or region specific. The most striking features of a street vendor in the definitions above are space, work and urban. Work in an urban space is strenuous and when the “worker” is unskilled, the conditions get extremely difficult for sustainable livelihood. Matters get further aggravated when it is a woman vendor as public space is gendered. Moreover many cast doubts on a woman who is not-so-well-educated. Everyday lives, and ‘lived experiences’ A snapshot of their everyday life reflects different images, symbols and spaces which categorize women street vendors as being “hopeless poor”. A closer look and daily interaction with them tell a different story. They are struggling with hope and articulate their stories with a lot of enthusiasm like any other city dweller. They have organized themselves into unions and do not shy away from voicing their opinion about their lived experiences. Among the many women working in the unorganized sector, and considering the variety of work that they are engaged in, women street vendors have a very different profile; they also have to face multi-dimensional challenges. It is difficult to describe a ‘typical’ street vendor. A street vendor may be little girl sitting at a street corner to sell green masala, or he may be a moustached man with a cell phone selling electronic items in the heart of a metro’s commercial centre. He may be a small farmer who has come to sell his vegetables in the urban haat (market) or she may be an embroiderer selling cushion covers to tourists. However, all street vendors belong to the vast urban informal sector and have to depend on this uncertain form of entrepreneurship to earn a living. This group of women is semi-skilled or is popularly regarded as being unskilled. But a closer look exhibits extraordinary business and communication skills without any formal training. The invisible skills of these women help them survive immense difficulties on a day-to-day basis. They are ready to go anywhere in search of customers. They are found everywhere in different kinds of markets: stationary or regular, weekly, daily or even mobile. But in all forms their struggle is in finding customers and buyers of their products. Studies show that the largest concentration of vendors is in the age group 18–35 years. Vending involves enormous physical labour. A vendor starts early in the morning with the day’s purchase. The marketing place is invariably far from his residence. Bringing large sacks of vegetables and fruits and loading them in a head-basket/cart is a tedious job. Arranging, cleaning, sorting, weighing and dealing with customers is also not easy. Hawkers are on the move from one lane to another irrespective of the heat, wind, rain and cold. Calling out loud to attract buyers consumes time and energy and there are no social security measures for them.
Similarly, there are many invisible skills that street vendors have which also require recognition and visibility. Violence against women, a shrinking public space and the influence of neo-liberalism on public policy is increasing every day. Their visible skills (hard work, negotiating skills and some marketing skills) are visible but their invisible skills comprise of the day-to-day struggle on multiple fronts. They also have to deal with the police, touts, illegal markets, decreasing scapes and transport facilities which make life extremely difficult and full of challenges for them. The skills needed to deal with these aspects are not only invisible but most of the time are not even considered to be skills. Business matters for her as for any entrepreneur, business matters for every street vendor though there are many things which are not under control. Most street vendors lack money to invest. Further, the prices fixed for their products are very low as a result of which their earnings are very little as compared with their investments. In towns and cities commuting is also a huge expense for them. Besides, travelling long distances also means that their products get dirty and also spoilt.
So long as there is any strength left in their bodies they work hard and again and manage their families. Self-employment needs to be encouraged and such people need to be empowered. Poverty is another big concern. According to the World Bank South Asia Malnutrition Report (2005), almost half (47 per cent) of the Indian children are malnourished; illiteracy in India is one of the highest in the world. Studies also show that as poor people get income security they first attain a minimum level of nutrition and then begin to spend on other necessities like clothing, healthcare, education for the children and housing depending on the urgency of the need. Street vending is a way for poor people to start moving out of poverty. Therefore, encouraging their livelihood would mean empowering a larger number of people not only to come out of poverty, but also to provide important services to others. Street vendors provide fruits and vegetables, fish, flowers, readymade food, clothes, household goods and a wide variety of necessities to people in the cities. They make these goods available at the most convenient places—at the door step, on the way home from office, near the market place, at bus stops. Without them, the monthly expenses of the middle class will go up and survival of the poor will become difficult. However, their contributions are often as invisible as their demands. What the government promises The Government of India has finally started paying some attention to the needs and demands of street vendors. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) has proposed Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2012 which is aimed at regulating street vendors in public spaces and also at protecting their rights. It was introduced in the Lok Sabha in September 2012 as a result of the Supreme Court of India recognizing street vending as a source of livelihood in 2010 and directing MoHUPA to work on a central legislation. Section 3(1) of the bill mentions registration of street vendors (14 years and above) with the town vendor committee which will free them from their everyday struggle for space and the existing licensing system. It states: “Every person who has completed the age of fourteen years, or as the case may be, the age prescribed by the appropriate Government, and intends to do street vending, may make an application to the Town Vending Committee for registration as a street vendor.” Moreover, Section 6(2) (1) states that a certificate of vending referred to in sub-section (1) shall be issued under any of the following categories, namely a stationary vendor; or a mobile vendor; or any other category as may be prescribed. Sections 2 (C) (D) (E) contain provisions for promoting and protecting a natural market, weekly markets and night bazaars where vendors and hawkers can sell their wares. Chapter V 20(1) states that there will be a permanent committee for grievance redressal and transparency and protection of vendors from confiscation of their goods and forced eviction by authorities (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending Rules, 2012). What this bill promises is relevant and important for the lives of many. First and foremost, the bill recognizes vendors as workers in the labour force. Women will now get an identity and legitimation. The bill also promises provision of proper spaces where vendors/ hawkers can sell their goods. This will cut down on the time and energy that they have to invest in their work. A town vending committee for vendors means they will be organized and their issues will be noticed by the appropriate authorities. This will also be rid of emergency evacuations by authorities as also the unwanted and harsh treatment from the police. This will help reduce much of the chaos in their lives.
It is a pity that even after 65 years of independence, India has not implemented any specific act for street vendors. They have been struggling for long and their issues have not been addressed sincerely. Meanwhile, a few voluntary organizations have been trying to raise their voices on behalf of women street vendors. For example, the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) for women workers in the informal economy including women street vendors has been working for four decades and the National Association for Street Vendors of India (NASVI) has been working for street vendors for a decade. Such organizations should be promoted by the government and a concrete plan for street vendors needs be implemented. Attempts have also been made for getting a central law and a board for street vendors. The bill now is a ray of hope for Gomiben and millions of others like her.
Despite the existence of government regulation of the sector, almost all the women street vendors are still working informally outside the legal framework, a matter which contributes to the incidence of corruption, adversely affects public security and depletes the state’s and individuals’ resources.
The vendors’ dissatisfaction with their work conditions is clear. Almost all of the respondents do not want their children to have the same profession – perhaps because it is tiresome or lacks social prestige. This also should be noted that the assignment of a specific location would solve two problems: (1) providing a fixed location with water and electricity source would alleviate extreme weather conditions and fatigue; and (2) giving vendors some social prestige as a small entrepreneur or investor.
When asked which institutions or factors cause them problems during their work course, the respondents ranked them in the following order (starting from the biggest to the smallest):
Economic Blockage, Bandh, Strike
Bad Weather
Shop Owners
Police
This arrangement is expressive of the nature of the selling work environment and the problems it is posing to street vendors.
Most of the women street vendors do not have license in Tamenglong, the only thing they have is an organisation of the women market vendors, a new law formalising their work should encourage them to comply with it, rather than be prohibitive,
Street vendors see shop owners as another threat. While these vendors must accept competition with big entrepreneurs if they wish to continue to be self-employed and to accept the nature of the free market, there is need for ensuring the minimum working conditions and competitiveness that will allow the hard working and the innovative among them to reap the fruit as small entrepreneurs. On a larger level, dealing with street vendors as small entrepreneurs helps reduce the monopolistic behaviour of some big traders who control prices. At the end of the day this will boost the government’s efforts to reduce inflation.
There is also a need of creating a fixed place for vendors to give them some kind of security, stability and social status for the development and expansion of their business andi mportance of creating an incentive to encourage vendors to obtain permits and to avoid the confiscation of their goods in surprise security sweeps to punish violators.
Overcoming obstacles to entering into the free market by facilitating legal procedures for street vendors is bound to reduce the likelihood of their resorting to informal means to have a presence on the streets and to carry out their business on public sidewalks, which increases the incidence of corruption, bribery and the depletion of the resources of both the state and these individuals.
The law’s ability to address problems on the ground depends on the strength of civic participation by vendors’ unions and stakeholders such as institutions concerned with reform and economic development. Motivating civic participation and building consensus among street vendors on a particular policy depends on raising awareness of its benefits through the media and at the popular level.The Gandhian method and humanistic temper should be the base to uplift the poor street vendors who struggle to make their livelihood. On which the laws enacted and the system should be pro-poor having justification in the holistically.
Benjamin Gondaimei: Telling My Story 