Karnataka has 6 lakh street vendors, but government can't see 4 lakh of them

For lakhs of street vendors who fall at the bottom of the economic ladder, the Covid cash assistance of Rs 2,000 announced by the state government will likely remain a pipe dream.

Years of neglect by local government bodies have kept nearly four lakh vendors out of official database.

Conservative estimates by the Karnataka State Street Vendors’ Federation put the number of street vendors in the state at six lakh, including about 1.5 lakh in Bengaluru Urban. The last survey of street vendors was conducted in 2017. Ever since, they haven’t had a chance to enrol for government schemes.

The government order on releasing the Rs-2,000 aid puts the number of street vendors at 2,16,439, who are registered under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM). But the federation says it’s unclear how the government arrived at this number.

The order restricts the cash assistance to one member of a family provided the individual is registered under DAY-NULM and the family is classified as below poverty line.

“We have been trying to reach out to officials to tell them how erroneous that number is. Within Bengaluru, we have more than 1.5 lakh street vendors, which doesn’t include those who depend on vending for a short time. How can they be excluded?” said S Babu, president of the Bengaluru Urban District Street Vendors Federation.

Babu said the survey was so cursory they struggled to make the authorities count the vendors in the next lane.

“In Bengaluru, the BBMP expects the street vendors to work as per their office timings without understanding the very nature of our work,” Babu added.

The 2017 survey long-listed about 26,000 street vendors. Of them, nearly 5,000 haven’t even received the identity card or vendor certificate.

Udaykumar, the coordinator of the federation’s state unit, said the government had arrived at the 2.16 lakh figure based on the loans issued under the Svanidhi scheme.

“Even there, many vendors have not been able to pay the monthly instalment in the last few months due to the pandemic. The lucky few who get the government aid will see that most of the Rs 2,000 will go towards paying the loan interest,” he said. “We have a long struggle ahead to make sure the government recognises all the six lakh vendors.”

Babu urged the government to use the minimum age formula to calculate the financial relief. “We need at least Rs 12,000 per month to survive in this city, where everything is becoming costlier by the day,” he said.