A STUDY OF THE ROAD-SIDE VENDORS ON NH8 THROUGH THE 'HATHAI KOTOR' RANGE IN TRIPURA

Abstract

A street vendor is a person who offers goods or services for sale to the public without having a permanently built structure but with a temporary static structure or mobile stall (or head-load). Street vendors could be stationary and occupy space on the pavements or other public/private areas, or could be mobile, and move from place to place carrying their wares on push carts or in cycles or baskets on their heads, or could sell their wares in moving buses. In this study, the vendors are small vendors sitting in the road-side of National Highway (NH8) through the Hathai Kotor (the then Baromura) hill range between Champaknagar and Teliamura of Tripura, India, who sell mainly agricultural produces grown in their kitchen garden or collected from the hill slopes and jungles. The socio-economic condition of these vendors; the challenges they are facing and their economic condition during covid19 pandemic is studied in this paper. They are facing challenges from various fronts including number of buyers, locational and geographical disadvantages. Covid19 restrictions have worsened their economic condition and posed threat on their subsistence.