The people engaged in street vending are vulnerable to various forms of disruptions. COVID-19-induced lockdown brought a sudden desolation to the business activity of vendors, which bent down the socio-economic condition of their families. This article looks into that aspect and especially tries to analyse the effect of COVID-19 lockdown/shutdown on vending businesses in a smart city in Odisha, Bhubaneswar. Using survey data from six different vending zones in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on a total of 142 vendors, 62 registered (formal) and 80 unregistered (informal) vendors, we observed a significant decline in the income of both formal and informal vendors during COVID-19 lockdown. The decline is more pronounced among informal vendors compared to formal vendors. There is a significant mean difference between monthly income and expenditure during pre- and post-lockdown/shutdown period. This indicates the adverse impact of the COVID-19 lockdown/shutdown on the vending business in Bhubaneswar, Odisha in general, and informal vendors in particular.
AnjariaS. J. (2012). The politics of illegality: Mumbai hawkers, public space and the everyday life of the law. In Street vendors in the global urban economy (pp. 69–86). Routledge India.
2.
AgnelloF., & MollerJ. (2004). Vendors purses: Women micro entrepreneurs and their business needs. Urban Sector Group.
3.
AuzzirZ., HaighR., & AmaratungaD. (2018). Impacts of disaster to SMEs in Malaysia. Procedia Engineering, 212, 1131–1138.
4.
BartikA. W., BertrandM., CullenZ. B., GlaeserE. L., LucaM., & StantonC. T. (2020). How are small businesses adjusting to COVID-19?Early evidence from a survey (NBER Working Paper No. 2689). National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge (pp. 1–35).
5.
BhowmikS. K. (2012). Street vendors in the global urban economy (p. 25). Taylor & Francis.
6.
BoelsD. (2014). It’s better than stealing: Informal street selling in Brussels. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 34(9–10), 670–693.
7.
BromleyR. (2000). Street vending and public policy: A global review. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 20(1/2), 1–28.
8.
BrownA., LyonsM., & DankocoI. (2010). Street traders and the emerging spaces for urban voice and citizenship in African cities. Urban Studies, 47(3), 666–683.
9.
CrossaV. (2016). Reading for difference on the street: De-homogenising street vending in Mexico City. Urban Studies, 53(2), 287–301.
10.
EggersF. (2020). Masters of disasters? Challenges and opportunities for SMEs in times of crisis. Journal of Business Research, 116, 199–208.
11.
EtzoldB. (2015). Selling in insecurity—living with violence: Eviction drives against street food vendors in Dhaka and the informal politics of exploitation. In GraafK., & HaN. (Eds), Street vending in the Neoliberal City: A global perspective on the practices and policies of a marginalized economy (pp. 164–190). Berghahn Books.
12.
GounderR. (2020). Economic vulnerabilities and livelihoods: Impact of COVID-19 in Fiji and Vanuatu. Oceania, 90(Suppl. 1), 107–113.
13.
KimJ., KimJ., LeeS. K., & TangL. (2020). Effects of epidemic disease outbreaks on financial performance of restaurants: Event study method approach. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 43, 32–41.
14.
ILO. (2014, January23). Women and men in the informal economy: A statistical picture. International Labour Organization, http://www.ilo.org/stat/Publications/WCMS_234413/lang–en/index.htm.
15.
GoI. (2021). Annual Report 2020–21. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
16.
GoO. (2021July10). Vending ZonesBhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Government of Odisha. https://www.bmc.gov.in/services/vending-zones
17.
Hindustan Times. (2021, December30). Odisha announces ₹29 Cr. package for street vendors, second time amid pandemic. Hindustan Times.
18.
LyonsM., & SnoxellS. (2005). Creating urban social capital: Some evidence from informal traders in Nairobi. Urban Studies, 42(7), 1077–1097.
19.
MilgramB. L. (2011). Reconfiguring space, mobilizing livelihood street vending, legality, and work in the Philippines. Journal of Developing Societies, 27(3–4), 261–293.
20.
OnodugoV. A., EzeadichieN. H., OnwunemeC. A., & AnosikeA. E. (2016). The dilemma of managing the challenges of street vending in public spaces: The case of Enugu City, Nigeria. Cities, 59, 95–101.
21.
PrasadS., SuH. -C., AltayN., & TataJ. (2015). Building disaster-resilient micro enterprises in the developing world. Disasters, 39(3), 447–466.
22.
RoeverS. (2014). Informal economy monitoring study sector report: Street vendors (pp. 1–72). WIEGO.
23.
RogersonC. M. (2016). Progressive rhetoric, ambiguous policy pathways: Street trading in inner-city Johannesburg, South Africa. Local Economy, 31(1–2), 204–218.
24.
RomaC. M. (2016). Lower circuit of the urban economy and local cities-hybrids. Mercator, 15(2), 23–36.
25.
Romero-MichelJ. C., Mokay -RamírezK. A., Delgado- MachucaM., Delgado- EncisoJ., Aurelien -CabezasN. S., Tiburcio -JimenezD., Meza-RoblesC., Delgado- EncisoO. G., EsquivelJ. G., Zaizar-FregosoS. A., Martinez FierroM. L., Rodriguez SanchezI. P., MelnikovV., Barajas-SaucedoC. E., Lara- EsquedaA., & Delgado- EncisoI. (2021). Health and economic measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic- e ffect on street vendors. The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, 15(2), 198 – 203.
26.
ShafiM., LiuJ., & RenW. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises operating in Pakistan. Research in Globalization, 2, 1–14.
27.
SahaD. (2009). Decent work for the street vendors in Mumbai, India: A distant vision!Journal of Workplace Rights, 14(2), 229–250.
28.
SchindlerS. (2014). Producing and contesting the formal/informal divide: Regulating street hawking in Delhi, India. Urban Studies, 51(12), 2596–2612.
29.
SwiderS. (2015). Reshaping China’s urban citizenship: Street vendors, Chengguan and struggles over the right to the city. Critical Sociology, 41(4–5), 701–716.
30.
TurnerS., & SchoenbergerL. (2012). Street vendor livelihoods and everyday politics in Hanoi, Vietnam: The seeds of a diverse economy?Urban Studies, 49(5), 1027–1044.
31.
The WIRE. (2020, April23). The streets are empty. How are hawkers surviving this lockdown?The WIRE.
32.
WilliamsC. C., & GurtooA. (2012). Evaluating competing theories of street entrepreneurship: Some lessons from a study of street vendors in Bangalore, India. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 8, 391–409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-012-0227-2.
33.
WHO. (2020). WHO coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard. World Health Organization.
34.
WHO. (2023). WHO coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard. World Health Organization.
35.
WIEGO. (2016). Response To Zero Draft Of The New Urban Agenda: Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). https://www.wiego.org/blog/response-zero-draft-new-urban-agenda-women-informal-employment-globalizing-and-organizing-wiego
