The document discusses the impact of COVID-19 on street vendors in India. It saw both negative and positive impacts. Negatively, vendors faced losses of livelihood, increased business risks, and falling demand for goods. Positively, hygiene practices improved and the importance of the informal sector was recognized. Surveys found vendors cutting education or relying on essential goods. The pandemic transformed markets and increased security concerns. Both economic and non-economic impacts were widespread due to job losses across the informal sector.

1. IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON STREET
VENDORS

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1-INTRODUCTION
2-WHAT IS INFORMAL ECONOMY?
3-IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON STREET VENDORS
3.1-NEGATIVE IMPACTS
3.2-POSITIVE IMPACTS
4-RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
5-SURVEY ANALYSIS-1(DIRECT SURVEYS)
6-SURVEY ANALYSIS-2(SURVEYS FROM TEXT)
7- MARKET DYNAMICS IN TIMES OF COVID-19
8-ECONOMIC AND NON-ECONOMIC IMPACTS
9-CONCLUSION

3. INTRODUCTION
 The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the country by storm. All of
its economic activities have suddenly come to a halt and the
econonomy has contracted largely.
 The economies of more than 100-plus countries have been
destroyed out of which some of them have asked for monetary
help from the IMF.
 Businesses across the world comprising hospitality,
entertainment,aviation etc. have seen a major negative impact.
 Various sporting events such as IPL and the Olympics have
been postponed indefinitely.
 The pandemic has also disrupted the functioning of various
online giants such as the major e-commerce platforms like
Amazon,Flipkart,Myntra etc.

4.  The Indian Economy contracted by almost an
unprecedented 23.9% to a plunging technical
recession,the trajectory of India’s economy saw a steep
decline in 2020.
 Barring agriculture,all other major indicators of growth
in the economy were massively impacted.The worst
affected sectors were massively impacted.
 The worst affected sectors were
construction,trade,hotels,manufacturing and mining.
 It is relevant to note that these sectors that generate the
maximum new jobs in the country.
 According to Nomura India Business Resumption Index
economic activity fell from 82.9 on 22 March to 44.7 on
26 April.

5. What is informal economy?
 An informal economy(informal sector or grey economy) is
the part of any economy that is neither taxed nor
monitored by any form of government.
 It provides critical economic opportunities for the poor and
has been expanding since the 1960s.
 The informal sector consists of enterprises which are
labour intensive.
 Low-skilled labourers who are desperate enough to work
for miserly wages in order to meet their substance
requirements largely contribute the labour force of
unorganised economic activities.

6.  The informal sector despite being a huge contributor to
India’s GDP,is often neglected when it comes to supportive
policies especially in times of crises.
 It is basically responsible for the country’s developmental
progress since large masses of workers who would
otherwise get unemployed are getting work.
 According to a study by Credit Suisse in 2018,the cause of
social divide is due to the fact that the richest 10% Indians
own about 80% of the country’s wealth while the less
privileged only have less than 5%.

7.  It obstructs the eradication of poverty,therefore leads to a
uptick in various forms of crimes every year.

8. The impacts of COVID-19 on street
vendors
NEGATIVE IMPACTS
 Fruits and vegetable vendors,owing to massive losses to
livelihood,tried to venture out to sell after a couple of days,but
faced strict police harrasment.
 The risk of doing business has gone up significantly,owing to ill-
hygenic practices in the times of COVID-19.
 The vendors do not have access to wholesale markets and
suppliers thus having to spend more on travel costs due to travel
resrtictions in place in the city.
 The demand for buying groceries physically from vendors went
down drastically owing to ill-hygenic conditions and fear of
COVID-19.

9.  The increased fear of the spread of the virus led consumers
to buy groceries from digital outlets such as
Grofers,BigBasket etc.
 The stimulus package introduced by the government has
not been so helpful for the vendors,since the governmnet
has provided for a credit loan to provide an initial working
capital of Rs.10000/-
 Instead if it would have been a direct income benefit or a
cash grant the results would have been better.
 The pandemic has been very harsh on the informal workers
who have exhausted their capital and earnings.

11. POSITIVE IMPACTS OF COVID-19
 Vendors were made aware of the hygenic and proper
sanitization practices they should follow during the
times of COVID-19.
 After the lockdown was eased,they knew in order to
thrive they ought to follow sanitization and social-
distancing norms.
 It somehow improved the hygenic practices which
were not followed before the pandemic hit.

12.  People of India were clear about the fact that although the
organised sector rules,the informal economy is relatively as
important for their survival since we are so dependent
upon it.
 Consumers who were earlier hesitant to follow hygenic
practices after buying groceries were now considering
hand-washing and sanitization practices.
 The informal economy,although an unorganised sector was
considered important by the government since people were
so dependent on them and also provided jobs to millions of
people.

14. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Area covered:-Ispat Market and Ispat Haat(also known as
Jharkand Market) of Rourkela,Odisha
 Area of Study(types of vendors covered):-Fast food
vendors,Chaat vendors,Pani-Puri vendors,fresh vegetables
and fruit vendors,cloth vendors,shoe vendors and mobile
accesory vendors.
 Number of respondents covered:-34
 Primary Survey:-Direct survey through questionnares to
vendors
 Secondary survey:-Surveys obtained through texts and
internet

15. SURVEY ANALYSIS-1(DIRECT
SURVEY)
 Gender
 Vendors reactions translated to English
NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS
MALE 57%
FEMALE 43%
SURVEY RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
BREAKING/WITHDRAWAL OF FD(SAVINGS) 16%
CUTTING DOWN ON CHILD’S EDUCATION DUE TO HIGH FEES 38%
CHILDREN WORKING ALONG WITH THEM HOPING EXTRA SALES 18%
FORCED TO RELY ON SELLING ESSENTIAL GOODS(e.g. FRUITS AND
VEGETABLES)
13%

16. SURVEY RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
INCREASE IN PETTY CRIMES LIKE STEALING FOR SURVIVAL 7%
DOMESTIC ABUSE AND HARASSMENT(BY LADY VENDORS) 8%

17. EFFECTS POST LOCKDOWN PERIOD
(DIRECT SURVEY-2)
 Vendor responses
NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS
MALE 57%
FEMALE 43%
SURVEY RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
EASING OF CURBS LEAD TO SLIGHT INCREASE
IN SALES
24%
VENDORS WERE TAUGHT HOW TO OPERATE POST
LOCKDOWN ADHERING TO SOCIAL DISTANCING AND
SANITIZATION NORMS
21%
CIRCLULAR MARKS WITH 6 FEET DISTANCE WERE MADE
AS A PREVENTIVE MEASURE
31%
VENDORS HAD TO BE EXTRA-CAUTIOUS WHILE
RETURNING HOMES SO THAT FAMILY MEMBERS REMAIN
SAFE
24%

19. SECONDARY SURVEY
 Street vendors have been severely hit across states.Markets being
shut down means they have no income and so they have been
mobile vendors.
 The Indian governmnet launched Rs.5000 crore special micro-
credit facility for nearly 50 lakh vendors.
 This credit linkage facility would provide an initial working
capital of Rs. 10000.
 Schneider and Enste(2003) estimate that the informal sector
represents 10-20% of global output of developing countries.
 The figures reported by the International Labour organisation
are the same magnitude-48% in non-agricultural employment

20. in North Africa,51% in Latin America,65% in Asia,and 72%
in Sub-Saharan Africa.
 The proportions of regular/wage salaried earners
accounted for 12.81% of rural households.In urban
India,the corresponding figures were 37.57%,12.68% and
41.66%

21. Market dynamics during COVID-19
CHANGES IN MARKET LOCATION
 New changes have been introduced by the governmnt
regarding market place locations in order to abide by social-
distancing measures.
 Public places such as school playgrounds and parks had been
converted into makeshift market places for vendors.
CHANGES IN NUMBER OF VENDORS
 The number of vendors had increased due to shift in
occupations.Auto-rickshaw drivers and daily-wage labourers
were selling fruits and vegetables in order to earn a living.

22. SECURITY CONCERNS
 Vendors were concerned that crime rates might increase as
the sudden loss of money may drive people to commit petty
crimes.

24. ECONOMIC AND NON-ECONOMIC
IMPACTS
ECONOMIC IMPACTS
 A world which buzzed with activities has fallen silent and
all resources have been diverted to meeting the never-
experienced befor crises.
 A 2019 joint report from WHO and the World Bank
estimated the impact of such a pandemic at 2.2% to 4.8%
of global GDP.This prediction seems to have come true,as
we see the world getting engulfed by this crisis.
 According to the policy responses by the Individual Labour
Organization(ILO),it was explained that the crisis had
already transformed into an economic and labour market
shock.

25. NON ECONOMIC IMPACTS
 Hygenic practices like washing of hands and proper
cleaning are being followed by vendors as well as
consumers.
 It was well understood by the government that the
informal/unorganised sector plays a significant role in the
Indian economy.
 Domestic abuse and harrasment reports increased during
this time due to frustration about sources of livelihood.
 Petty crimes such as stealing increased owing to
uncertainty of livelihood for daily-wage/low-income
labourers.

26. CONCLUSION
 According to International Labour
Organisation(ILO),it is estimated that globally more
than 25 million jobs are at risk due to the COVID-19
outbreak.
 The ILO describes in its report as the worst global
crisis since World War 2.It is estimated that 4 in evey 5
people(81%) of the global workforce of 3.3 billion are
currently affected by lockdown in various countries.
 Most of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable
people live and work in the informal economy.

27.  The vulnerability of informal workers is strongly
influenced by their social status and their capabilities.
 These capabilities are issues of public intervention in
the fields of education,housing and sanitization.
 Warranted by the magnitude of the current crisis,India
has to ensure a wider reach of amenities to both
impose living and protect livelihoods.

28. THANK YOU