Street vendors across the State are in a dilemma in the backdrop of the ongoing survey in local bodies to issue identity cards and certificates to the deserving beneficiaries. They are of the view that the survey is ill-timed considering the pandemic situation. They have also demanded that the government put it off until the situation improves.
A large number of street vendors have been left jobless due to several reasons, including COVID-19 restrictions, which have prevented them from carrying out business. Some are in quarantine too. Holding a survey in such a situation will result in a number of deserving street vendors getting excluded from the beneficiary list, complained P.A. Jirar, State secretary, Kerala Street Vending Labourers’ Federation (AITUC).
“The State government had decided to conduct the survey and publish a report in every local body before July 31. However, it could not be taken forward as planned in most local bodies. And, when the survey was held, it was done in a hurry, and several deserving street vendors could not make it into the list, as they were not doing business on days the survey was held,” Mr. Jirar said.
The federation has been organising protests across the State against the “unscientific manner” in which the survey is conducted. The Kozhikode Corporation had carried out a street vendors’ survey in 2017 and had identified around 2,500 vendors. Of them, around 1,900 had been issued identity cards. But many who were in the original list did not find place in the new one, as they were deemed absent or undeserving. “The corporation had details of those in the first list. They could just have followed it up to find out as to why so many vendors were off the road at the time of the survey,” said federation Kozhikode district president P.V. Madhavan. The federation leaders complained that the lists had been manipulated to suit vested interests in some places.
Meanwhile, the federation has taken up the matter with the office of the Minister for Local Self-Governments.