Street Vendors In The Informal Economy

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2.1 Introduction Street Vendors play an important role in the informal economy as it makes significant contribution. While discussing street vendors one has to explore the nature of the informal economy. This was popularly known earlier as the informal sector as opposed to the formal sector and is called the unorganised sector India. It includes all economic units and workers who are not a part of the regulated economic activities and protected employment relations (Chen 2004:1). In present scenario, the modern organized sector are making efforts to provide employment to rapidly expanding labour force, so the large number of persons try to create or find income opportunities. Globally, above 25% of the workers operate in the informal sector.…show more content…
Informal vending is viewed with wariness and is seen to lead to obstruction of pavements and blocking pedestrian flows and traffic congestion, large volumes of garbage, dirt and many a times unsanitary waste products leading to unhygienic environment, health hazards and general deterioration and dilapidation of the important areas of the city. The informal vendors are also seen as unfair competitors by the formal traders which eventually exploit the informal vendors as well as they are considered to create poor impression about the city for outsiders. The urban elites view them as eyesores that blotch the urban scenario. On the other hand, for the urban poor, especially the working poor, street vendors are a boon to their existence. They provide goods and services cheaper as mentioned above as well as they are easy to access as they set up their business in convenient places in the city where a large number of commuters…show more content…
Despite these the vendors are seen as ‘encroachers’ and as ‘public nuisance’ who obstruct traffic. Street vendors show perseverance in dealing with authorities of Municipal Corporation, traffic police, authorities dealing with law and order, regional development authorities, district administration authorities, local governing bodies, single handedly with an odd and awe-inspiring mixture of confidence and weakness. In 1970’s the concept of “informal sector” came into existence in the terms of development theory and policy. (Harth, 1970), introduced the term “informal sector” he further found the basic features of informal sector which were proved to useful for employment in developing countries. These were: - Low levels of skill: Large numbers of untrained, unskilled workers are looking for employment which they do not get in formal sector as they do not have skills which are needed. Hence, they enter into the informal sector where they can find

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