Women Street Vendors in Bangalore Main Markets.

Abstract

The rationale  of the study is to understand how the women street vendors in Bangalore city’s  ain markets in the post covid period faced their problems. The period of study was from July to ctober  2022 during the festival time . Street vendors or hawkers re those who sold their goods on the pavements or makeshift stalls. They belong to the unorganized sector  and are unskilled  individuals. This period was chosen  to understand under what conditions  did the women vendors sell their merchandise? Though the government has come forward to assist the urban   vendors by means of SVAnidhi and SUSV,Deenadayal Antyodya Yojana the study found women vendors unable to face market competition ,and were elbowed out of their selling space by rival competitors. They grappled  many  issues concerning  problems of transporting and pricing of flowers, fruits and vegetables etc. The  main markets chosen for the study was .Yaswanthpura’s  Dr.Ambedkarnagar market, Malleshwaram 11^th cross market  and K.R market. Eight categories of street vendors were selected.  Flower sellers ,vegetable sellers, fancy items sellers, Agarbathi sellers ,mud pots sellers, Rangoli powders sellers, sweet condiments sellers and finally pani puri sellers. From Yeshwanthpur main market 50 samples,  K R market 120 samples and from Malleshwaram main market 30 samples were taken for study. Total  sample size was 200 and descriptive analysis was followed. The research problem pertained to their  access of finance for business purpose and how they fared in the post-covid  period during the festival season from July to October. .All markets post pandemic which witnessed an economic slowdown wanted a fast economic recovery Research methodology consisted of both primary as well as secondary data.  Their main source of finance was the local money lenders. The findings indicated   though these sellers  incurred losses in the post pandemic season they still struggled to make both ends meet due to lack of finance and high cost of merchandise.