Sharing Smiles

It was my Birthday. Being a human being you tend to feel.. do something special on your birthday & that too when we all are away from our families which made me decide to make this day more meaningful. i asked my team members to get ready as we our going to pay one more visit to the vending zone. On our way i took a box of sweets to distribute among Vendors and share my happiness with them. This one action helped us a lot to interact in a better way with them. The information we collected was as follows :

Some solutions suggested by the vendors themselves:

1. The open space besides the vending zone area should be fenced so thet no other small shop can open there.
2. Dustbin should be provided to each vending zone and  BMC should ensure that the garbage is collected on a daily basis.
3. The outlets like Reliance Fresh, Udyan fresh should be opened at a minimum 1 km distance from the vending zone.

Benefits from vending zone

1.  Vendors could get a permanent space to carry on their business.
2.  The local politicians who were exploiting the vendors are unable to do    so now because of the support of the government and other  organisations promoting the vending zones.

In the end, we as a team just hope that future brings more Happiness & prosperity in their life. This whole concept of Vending zone helps them in affording a better standard of living.

Problems discovered

We again visited to vending zones to try to unveil or touch upon the issues which go unnoticed. we felt something is missing which prompted us to go ahead and talk to these vendors more & more..Here is what we found out

Recent Problems faced by the vendors in the vending zone

ü  There is no  provision of water for the shopkeepers.

ü  No proper toilet facility for them

ü  One of the biggest problem is the smaller shops which are being set up near the vending zone area.

ü  The BMC sweeper who have been assigned with the job to sweep the area near the vending zone are not doing so and instead asking for money when the are asked to do the job.

ü  Till now, no Identity card has been provided to the vendors of the vending zone

ü  Another problem is the opening of retail outlets like Udyan fresh, Reliance fresh which is affecting the business of the vending zone.

ü  Te space provided for each shop is not sufficient for them.

ü   There is also a problem of too many bulls in the city.

KIIT SQUARE VENDING ZONE

Today when we were planning to go on one more visit to vending zone, we saw one of our friends going out in her car.. Being MBA student the first thing which strikes my mind is proper utilization of resources and i went on to ask her for help..why waste money when Indian rupee is already going through some big crisis.As soon as she dropped her we found ourselves in the student hub of this city. The place was full of youngsters and the whole atmosphere was so vibrant. Suddenly passing through all the shops following my oriya friend, Jagruti we layman people as in me & Deepa entered into my favorite spot SMACK momos..ummmmmmmmmm!! I was so delighted to see momos that i was literally told by Deepa & Jagruti 

" Dont worry Akritee we will make you taste them" gosh that was embarrassing :P   

SMACK

If you are a fan of momos and Tibetan food, this place is one of the best places to visit. Its light on your pocket and offers delicious food. Smack is basically a snacks shop which deals with variety of momos like steamed veg momo, steamed paneer momo, steamed chicken momo and many ore. It also facilitates home delivery services..Something you love to taste and relish, related to some of your past experience which pushes you to look forward again and again….If that taste comes to your door step, I am sure you will again cherish those moments lifelong. 

Yes, at “SmAcK”  they are determined to provide the very same mouth watering cuisine for which you don’t have to plan for your sojourn to Darjeeling/Gangtok/Tibet or Kathmandu….again.

When we interviewed people here they were very supportive & friendly at the same time. Smach momos guy has taken a franchisee of this SMACK chain and his main concerns were he has a heavy load of  paying back to the creditors. we also went to few more vendors which were relatively younger as compared to other owners in the market i.e. the fruit stall vendor Mahesh & tea stall vendor Suryakanta. To our surprise all of them had some elementary education and the minimum was 8th pass. These young vendors are like any other young entrepreneur because when we interviewed them their answers to our questions were like they also want to make it big in life. Survival was not their ultimate aim they want upliftment in life..atlast believe me SMACK momos are yummy just go out and try them :) :)

FRUIT STALL

MAHIMA TEA STALL

A word with Mr. Pratap Sahoo

It was a regular day of august and we were in our FRA class.In the end Dr. Ramana Sir told us that Mr. Pratap Sahoo is going to meet us right now, the leader of the union of the Vending zones. He is  a vending zone activist.

Mr. Sahoo was very humble to us while talking and said its difficult for him to summarize his 15 year experience in 15 minutes due to time constraints.

He said that the 3 basic demands put forth were Identity card for the vendors,Rehabilitation ,To start any business with the provision of Article19(1)(g). he informed us more about their uphill battle fought to convert vendor’s bill into an act in 2004.Also this national policy was later amended in light of the Swadan Singh casein Delhi High Court. After this the issue of eviction was taken care of and use of 19(1)(g) was implied. He also told us that there were 60 vending zones in Bhubaneshwar & the police commissioner declare that vending zones of Bhubaneshawar could be the ideal model for  future vending zones to come. He went to mention that Ranchi has the best model but was more & less inspired by Bhubaneshwar only.

Some of the benefits of VZ for hawkers are:

• Fear of eviction gone and they are assured of rehabilitation
• can afford education of their children through loans taken by showing shops as their assets.
• Increase in regular source of income.
  

Some of the advantages for muncipalities are:

• lakhs saved due to removal of eviction drives.
• taxes from hawkers
• model for entire India to emulate

I was astonished to know when he told that people from countries like America, China, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand etc. have also visited to study the unique model of Bhubhaneshwar VZ.He also touched upon the issue of Public Private Partneship model to be taken in case of VZ.

As I mentioned in the start , he was more than happy to answer all our questions. Finally the class representative gave a 'Thank you' speech. The interaction helped us a lot to gain insights about this serious issue.

Exploring Vending Zones !!!

Bhubaneswar....The temple City of Odisha, my hometown and the place which is most closest to my heart. After spending 21 years in this city, its like everything for me, my home, my friend, my style, a place which has taught me live my way of life. Today I am proud that my city is progressing towards development of which i am also a witness. Way back in 1990's the city which was called to be an introvert, having no good access to the modern world is progressing like a fast horse today and the most lively example of such progress is the intoduction of a new market technique called "Vending Zones".

I was very much aware about the vending zones in my city

but had never gave a thought towards the reasons of its emergence.

Ma' Shikharachandi Vending Zone

But today due to a project on this topic at my Institute "XIMB", I feel previleged that I am going to get a pool of informations regarding this drive and get associated with the street vendors who have contributed a lot for this project.

Ma Sikhara Chandi Khyudra Byabasai Sangha, Near KIIT Square

Its been raining daily since we started this project. God knows what signals he is trying to give us :P. well i hope our readers liked the pictures we posted before exams. yes our exams just got over and we are back with one more post, with one more untold story..

i just came out of the examination hall and what i see was my team waiting for me fully armed ( well with arms i mean umbrellas with an auto as i told you its been raining daily) to visit the vending zone. its been a trend i always come out of the examination hall at last :P. Well we went to the Non veg vending zone first & started clicking pictures but i think we created an uproar there as people started approaching us with loads of questions like " are you from TV? Are you guys from some new channel...please help us " we told them that we are from jaabhiyar college ( Xavier college) as they call it.

Suddenly we are stopped by a man & he ask us to please listen for a moment. He was with his wife, he told us that the area where he used to place his shop is being vacated by BMC and hes left with nothing now. We could see the helplessness in his eyes, he asked us to take up this issue to higher authorities as we are better informed than him. the tears of his wife made my heart shrunk. i could witness the graveness of the issue on his face telling the story of his lost world.....

Non-Veg vending zone

Non veg vending zone visit is an unforgettable one. Being a vegeterian it was my first meeting with a non veg market and that too i had too so closely witness everything and interview the vendor. we did not get very good response from this particular vending zone as they were not answering to our questions. But never mind Deepa got a lesson from there. she learned how to walk carefully as she accidently stepped into a cow dung and gave us a big reason to have our share of laugh. that was really funny clicking picturs without stepping into cow dung is the next upcoming novel written by Deepa Sarkar ( i am still not able to stop myself from laughing :D)

We tried our best to express the plight of Non Veg vending zone through our camera pictures.

SEE YOU SOON..