MANSI CIRCLE VEGETABLE MARKET

Vegetable market located in MANSI CHOWK is a daily market. Surrounded by higher and higher middle income group residential societies. It has around 270 hawkers out of which 210 are women hawkers. The market has been developed by AUDA, with advertising rights to Reliance Company. The market is based on the main arterial road, over 30 meters wide. The traffic load on the road is very high and the customers commuting prefer making stoppage and buy vegetables from the market. The market is organized and maintained well by the vendors, for their and customer convenience. Use of stools, shades from sun and electronic weighing machine is done.

Imphal –Ima Keithel

Ima(Mother) keithel(market)or Nupi(Women)keithel is one of the largest market of the world which is only managed by women. Around 3000 stalls are being managed by women. This reflects the independent spirit and enterprise of the Manipuri women. Folklore advocates that Goddess Ima protects these women. The bazaar remains open from 9 in the morning till 7 in the evening.

The tribal women display a range of items from food items such as fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, fish and honey to clothes and woolens. Traditional and tribal costumes in brilliant hues attract the tourists who pay this market a visit. The tribal men of the region handcraft the metal and carved wooden jewelry on display in this market.

The Ima Market, located on either side of the thoroughfare, is a cheery, tourist hotspot and probably the best locale to catch the local culture.

Dilli darwaza: women dominance

One of the most common vending amongst women is vending old clothes. There is a huge market for old clothes dominated by women. They get these old clothes by bartering for utensils, which they sell, going door to door. After walking for hours in sun with a massive load of utensils on head, women collect old clothes, wash and repair them and then sell them, again by sitting for hours on the road. The money in reinvested in the business.
Dilli darwaza is an old and huge market of old clothes. There one can see around 300 women sitting on road with heaps of clothes of all kind, some organized some not. Along the road sit many tailors doing the repair jobs.

WHY NOT WOMEN

Street vending is one of the few readily accessible entrance of employment open to women who need to earn a living. The low cost entry in various types of hawking and vending and schedule flexibility, are the major factors for hawking. According to study, we realize that women in this sector are the most underprivileged, working more or equal to men and earning nearly half. Women also juggle family and work responsibilities continuously with extra burden of securing themselves of socially and physically. Women has all the potential to do better for themselves and family, if facilitated properly

Self Employed Women’s Association

SEWA is an organisation of poor and self-employed women workers. It is a trade union registered in 1972.SEWA has been working for street vendors and focusing on women vendors. SEWA has been conducting various surveys and research and has been continuously persuading government for bringing up new schemes for betterment of these vendors. We go in contact with SEWA to understand an NGO’s perspective and their goals regarding sectors like this.

We also attended SEWA’s trade union meeting of women vendors. We got opportunity to meet various representatives of women vendors from across the city and got to know their experiences and problems in the trade.

Now, looking at hawking…

Looking at the system of hawking in different ways, helped in wholistic understanding of the complexity involved. The same system can be viewed, understood and modeled with different pivotal points.

Hawking according to the different type of merchandise and different modes of hawking.