Rajnath Singh-led GoM set to draw schemes for street vendors’ financial security
New Delhi: With the lockdown and its aftermath hitting hit street vendors in a big way, the Centre is looking to bring in schemes for their greater financial security.
ET gathers that a new ‘informal’ Group of Ministers (GoM) has been set up to draw the contours of a scheme within a week.
The 12-member GoM is learnt to be considering an integrated value chain system to ensure minimum income for street vendors, protect them from local agencies’ harassment and provide them hygienic food from a centralised kitchen. The move is aimed at drawing in street vendors into an ‘organised’ sector mechanism and preparing them for a food scenario hit by Covid-19. It is estimated that there are over 10 million street vendors in India, with the maximum in Mumbai, followed by New Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Women form a sizable part of street vendors.
The high-level GoM is learnt to be chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh and has on board finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur, minister for transport and MSME Nitin Gadkari, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, urban development minister Hardeep Puri, minister for consumer affairs and food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, minister for social justice and empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, health minister Harsh Vardhan, besides minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy and minister of state for MSME Pratap Singh Sarangi.
The aim is to look for economically sustainable models with public-private partnership and start with mega cities where street food consumption is high.
ET has learnt that the ‘Indore model’, a centralised kitchen model, which was executed through a private firm, is being studied.