Amid relentless shutdown for the past consecutive 121 days, youngsters in Kashmir are opting for vendor as vocation to survive and sustain their families.
And for shoppers amidst shutdown and restrictions, vendors are the main source to shop for eatables and other essentials.
‘You name it and they have it’ is the notion on the streets of Srinagar and elsewhere where vendors have occupied every nook and corner of the roads.
“Vendors are selling vegetables, fruits, mobiles, SIM cards, households, kitchen wear items, warm clothes, kids wear, soaps, dry and fresh fruits, vegetable and flower seeds, plant nurseries, chicken and other products. Virtually, the shops have been replaced by vendors these days,” said Abdul Hameed of Zakura.
The number of street vendors has increased with new and young entrants joining the business.
Previously the markets had no presence of street vendors but now large numbers of vendors are selling everything.
The areas include Hazratbal, SaidaKadal, Rainawari, Nowpora, Khayam, Dalgate, Polo view, Residency Road, Regal Chowk, LalChowk, Hari Singh High Street, LalDed Hospital, Jawahar Nagar, Rajbagh, Sanat Nagar, Hyderpora, Nowgam, PanthaChowk areas in Srinagar and all towns in various districts of Kashmir.
Some of the products are also sold by vendors in load carriers. They visit some of the localities in morning to sell their stocks.
During day, they park these vehicles loaded with stocks at roadside in city to sell remaining items.
“We are earning good profits these days. People who are habitual of purchasing branded products from shops are now also buying products from us. Sometimes we also look into the demands of public and try to stock the same products as and when demanded,” said Shakeel Ahmad, a street vendor at Hari Singh High Street.
Even authorities have turned soft on vendor community these days.
“Police used to chase us away when we used to install our stocks at road pavements. We were accused of causing traffic jams and encroachment of footpaths, meant for pedestrian movement. These days, there are no such actions or complaints,” said Majid Ahmad, a street vendor at GhantaGhar.
“Today, street vendors can install their stocks in the centre of road and nobody would object. We have example of Jahangir Chowk where large number of street vendors are selling stocks, literally on the centre of road,” said Aftab Ahmad, a commuter.
Some of the young entrants said that they are earning good profits.
“We are three brothers. We used to earn livelihood by doing manual labour. Nobody hired us during ongoing unrest for the work and there was no other source of livelihood. We made temporary carts and started selling stocks on roads. We are earning good to feed our family,” said Ishtiyaq Ahmad, 20, of Kralpora.
He added that earlier they would find no space on the roadside to install their stocks.
“There was some limited space for vendors and that was already occupied by those who had been in this business from past several decades. During unrest, we have liberty to install stocks anywhere,” he added.
In a bid to prevent encroachment of footpaths and roadsides in city-centre areas, authorities had proposed to set up three markets for vendors.
One of the markets had been set up for vendors in LalChowk at SRTC Yard which was renamed as Makka Market. However, on September 2, this year, authorities dismantled the market and handed it back to the SRTC.
Presently, 2910 hawkers from across the city were registered with the SMC.
Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, president Street Vendors Association, said that they instal stocks on the road pavements.
“We install our stocks during day. It is our compulsion. The relaxation comes into effect in evening. You have to understand that we are not shopkeepers having facilities of shuttering up and down,” he said.
“We have to bring stocks from other places and install them at road pavements. Then, in evening, we have to re-send the unsold stock to safer places. In evening, we have no lights, causing difficulty for customers to check the product to be satisfied to buy it. The fact is that in evening, we close our stocks,” he added.
Various shopkeepers said that they are providing their stocks to the street vendors and pay them on commission basis. They said they do it as due to shutdown they are unable to do any businesses.
“I have a good stock of warm clothes. I provide the stocks to some street vendors to sell it. I pay them on commission basis for the number of garments they sell. In evening, they return the unsold stock,” said a shopkeeper at Regal Chowk said, adding, “The vendors provide us good profits than what we earn during relaxation period in evening.”
Other shopkeepers who provide their stocks to street vendors for sale said that they are satisfied with the earning. They added they stocks include showcased clothes, bags, accessories, mobile phones, ready-made garments, solar lights and other products to attract maximum footfalls.
Usually, people would throng street vendors to look for clothes, blankets and some kitchen wear items. Now we can see more products on sale including chickens, mobiles phones, SIM cards, computer accessories and others.
The famous weekly Sunday Market in Srinagar which stretches from Polo-View to TRC has been witnessing increased rush of shoppers from past several weeks.
The rush of people increased continuously from October 9 this year which has forced private vehicles plying on road TRC to Polo View to take alternative routes as many street vendors had stalled their stocks at road pavements.
