Street vendors, particularly those delivering vegetables and other edible commodities at the doorsteps of customers in urban areas, are all set to find themselves on a different pitch where they can carry on their business with a lesser interest burden.
Hitherto, according to official sources, such vendors were not eligible to avail loan at an affordable interest rate from recognised financial organisations, as their business was considered as high-risk trade in the unorganised sector by the lending institutions.
A survey conducted by the National Commission for Enterprises in Unorganised Sector way back in 2007 led to a shocking revelation that these vendors, who were taking loans from private lenders at higher interest rate, were able to make a poor profit after a days’ toiling work.
According to the Commission’s report, a male street vendor was able to make a sum of Rs.70 per day while the women were able to generate Rs.40 per day as their remuneration, as a major chunk of the money they generate during the day’s business went to the money lenders as “daily-basis interest” for the capital they had borrowed.
Thus, in order to free such self-employed persons from the clutches of usury, the Central Government formulated a policy for street vendors in 2014 wherein a separate component – Support to Urban Street Vendors (SUSV) was included in the National Urban Livelihood Mission.
Under SUSV, the street vendors have been classified into three categories – (a) stationary, (b) peripatetic and (c) mobile. A survey of such vendors was carried out in the nine Municipal areas in Kancheepuram district recently where 2072 street vendors have been identified in seven Municipalities with Tambaram Municipality leading the pack with 1131 street vendors in its list.
A survey was still being carried out in other two Municipalities — Kancheepuram and Maraimalai Nagar — official sources added. The main objective of the SUSV programme was to form an association of such vendors in each Municipality and elect their representatives who would coordinate with government officials for obtaining loans at less than 7 per cent interest from the nationalised or cooperative banks.
For this purpose, bio-metric identification cards would be issued to them, said an official from the Directorate of Municipal Administration.
