Abstract

The plight of street vendors (SV) is pitiful anywhere in India. NewspapeRs. carry articles about them encroaching the streets and disturbing traffic. However, their financial status and their daily existence is a struggle. The government on its part is doing its best for their upliftment through Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors’ Atmanirbhar Nidhi Yojana scheme. Getting the basic information about the daily income, family size, education, daily capital requirement and source on these SVs is in itself a big challenge. This article, a part of the Indian Council of Social Science Research – Impactful Policy Research in Social Science (ICSSR – IMPRESS) tries to understand the above mentioned basics in order to help the policy makeRs. do a better job. To carry out this study, 477 SVs were met and data was collected using a structured questionnaire in a span of six months. The study is split into two parts. The first part is the demographic description of the SVs and the second part is about the financial status of the SVs. From the study it was found that, majority of the SVs need a daily working capital of Rs. 201 to 300. Most have their savings as their major source of working capital followed by getting capital from money lenders Almost all of the SVs have a bank account but only one SV out of the entire sample of 477 has got loan from bank, while all the rest get money for their capital from money lenders Educating the SVs on the ills associated with borrowing money from money lenders through Public Distribution System (PDS) employees may be considered.