JOIN USCoronavirus: 16 lakh hawkers in Bengal face uncertain future as lockdown continues
The last time Babushona Mondal was able to open his tea shop in Salt Lake on the eastern fringes of Kolkata was on March 21, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Janata Curfew to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
Since then he has not been able to run his business for a single day. With the extension of the lockdown till May 3, Mondal and many others like him face an uncertain future.
Mondal is one among nearly 16 lakh hawkers in West Bengal who are struggling to earn their livelihood in face of this crisis.
Speaking to DH, Mondal said he is barely able to manage the cost of his disabled father’s medicines. Even after the lokdown is lifted, he does not have any money to restart his business and sustain his family of six.
“We are daily wage earners and if the situation prevails we may face starvation. We are totally dependent on the state government’s ration and aids given by the Hawkers Sangram Committee (one of the largest organisations of street vendors in the state),” said Mondal.
The leaders of the organisation are apprehensive that if the situation continues, hawkers may be at risk of starvation. According to Saktiman Ghosh, general secretary of the Hawkers Sangram Committee, the street vendors’ hardships may compel them to take law in their own hands.
“Their harship will only increase after the lockdown is lifted as they will have no capital left for doing business. This desperation and hardship may compel them to take law in their own hands,” said Ghosh.
Despite the exemptions provided by the government for vendors selling certain things, 95% of them who come to the city from rural areas are unable to travel.
Hawkers who are “rural migrants” are unable to do any business due to restrictions on public transport.
“Out of about 16 lakh hawkers in West Bengal only five percent who are local residents of Kolkata are being able to do some business following the limited exemption provided by the government but the rural migrants are unable to earn their livelihood due to the lockdown,” said Ghosh.