The street vendors

Nearly every household in Karachi has heard this person making the rounds, especially if you are living in apartment blocks situated in middle class neighbourhoods.

Listening to him, you wonder if this person pushing a dirty, old and rusty pushcart is a street vendor or an engineering graduate from Harvard.

You better believe it when he claims anything and every utensil that has broken down in your house he can fix. It is a long list which includes electric irons, gas stoves, pressure cookers, washing machines and everything else that you were about to discard, but this magic fixer can fix in the twinkling of an eye. Sometimes I wonder if he also had a hand in helping us become a nuclear power.

I have been wondering how anyone can become a street vendor of this kind and especially in the category of fixing utensils that if not repaired properly can cause serious damage as happened recently when the compressor of a refrigerator burst and engulfed an entire family.

I wonder if this refrigerator was fixed by some amateur roaming the streets posing as an expert. It seems that in Pakistan, there are no legal formalities to be completed in order to hit the streets with tall claims that end sometimes in fatal results.

While there is legislative cover to street vendors in India, there is no such cover in Pakistan.

Statistics about street vendors who are called Pheriwalas in some areas and Rehribaan in others are hazy but according to rough estimates there are estimated to be nearly one million across the country generating around PKR 900 billion annually. This estimate would surely interest those looking for new filers in the country.

There are two kinds of street vendors. The one who roam the streets and those who are stationary outside busy shopping areas and part of their earnings goes towards paying protection money to various authorities. These street vendors live a dangerous life as without any law legislating their activities they are at the mercy of local authorities and in most cases end up paying protection money and make other payments down the line in order to survive.

Since the vast majority of street vendors are from the lower strata of society and scantily educated they are neither aware of their rights or have the knowledge and means to protect themselves and in most cases capitulate to intimidation from a countrywide network of municipal staff, police and even shopkeepers to help them operate unhindered.

How helpless these hard-working souls are is evident from the fact that following a 2018 Supreme court judgement ordering the removal of encroachments thousands of street vendors found themselves evicted from markets and areas they had serviced for decades.

Street vending also provides livelihood to women, who once their family grows are forced to go out and work. Some of the categories that are popular with female street vendors are vegetables, dry fruits; ready meals like burgers and dossa, bangles, ladies accessories; cloth etc. Vending enables them to make a significant contribution to family income; however, according to surveys, most suffer from fatigue and other health problems resulting from long working days, working amongst heavy traffic and in intense direct sunlight.

Many of the women and, as studies show nearly 58 percent, also face harassment from the police and other officials.

Family life is also disturbed, children neglected and sometimes husbands forcibly taking away their earnings for illicit activities like gambling and drugs.

Apart from the stationary and mobile street vendors, there is also a street vendor specializing in one selected product that he or she delivers on demand. The most popular item in this category is fish, which when ordered is delivered fresh to your doorstep.

The vendors in this category are sharp individuals who know the demands and taste of their customers and make it a point to call and inform that the item desired is now in stock.

The one street vendor with immaculate delivery and mind-boggling prices is the one in Karachi. This is the wedding dress cloth supplier from places like Orangi who by appointment bring their offerings to posh residences in different parts of the city and spend hours discussing different aspects of demands and supplies and in most cases sealing deals with mind-boggling prices.

Now here are some fishes the tax net would really like to capture, but I doubt they will ever succeed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024