Lived Experiences of Women Street Vendors in North-East India: A Case Study From Gauhati City of Assam,India

Abstract

Women street vendors choose their street vending for multiple obligations, ranging from domestic, social, and economic reasons. They often come from socio-economically disadvantaged groups who run their family with meagre amount of daily earnings from their self-employed endeavour. The present exploratory case study tries to investigate the experience of women street vendors with respect to their personal motives, infrastructures, vending sites, daily earnings, institutional entitlements, and challenges they face in their daily lives. Eighty women street vendors were interviewed in Gauhati, using semi-structured questionnaires. Findings of the study indicate that women street vendors are institutionally unentitled, socially and economically vulnerable, and experience multidimensional challenges during their street vending. They need better access to skill education, gender-sensitive workspace, and financial management. Thus, the article calls for an institutional policy framework to provide education, proper vending sites, transportation, and social security to make street vending gender-sensitive.