The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : They are prisoners of urban poverty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

They are prisoners of urban poverty

Vending is not a source of livelihood for them but they serve majority of people at an affordable cost

— Photo: K. Ganesan.

SURVIVAL: Sembayi (75), a migrant from Paramanur, has been selling vegetables for more than 50 years at Koodal Azhagar Perumal Temple Tank in the city.

“The State has spawned the social insecurity by becoming the diligent handmaiden to the despotism of the market, thus creating an urban disorder and re-establishing a dictatorship over the marginal fractions of the working class, violating in practice the ideal of democratic citizenship” – Loic Waquant, Urban Sociologist.

A narrow lane near the Koodal Azhagar Perumal Temple Tank has been providing space for a lot of urban vendors where small vegetable shops, shops selling old electronic items and small grocery shops are the means of their livelihood. The market here has vegetable shops mostly owned by aged people who started their business young and have been there for more than six decades and hence, have become a means of economic security.

Urban vending has not been a source of livelihood for them but they also have been providing services to a majority of urban population at an affordable cost. The shops offer many an urban common folk, not very affluent, the opportunity to pick up items and ordinary articles of everyday use for a comparatively lesser price after a day’s hard work.

Migrated

The vendors here are the urban poor, most of whom have migrated from nearby villages like Karumathur and Usilampatti, and have been living here for more than 50 years. Instead of living in dependent poverty they continue to work and solve their problems through their own meagre resources.

The small space, which is used for vending, which is hardly 15 feet, can be termed as an “ alternative space” as it is used by the vendors both as a shop and their place of dwelling.

Thayamma, aged 80, who has been selling vegetables for the past 60 years, has to take care of herself and her younger son, a student, with her paltry earnings.

Her three daughters and an elder son have gone to places like Coimbatore and Tirupur in search of better livelihood. She says, “Mostly kalasi workers and other lower income groups purchase from us as they feel that the goods are cheap and thus affordable”.

Beneficial schemes

She normally earns Rs.150, which she says is the maximum amount “I used to get Rs.120 to Rs.150 daily some few months back but now I hardly do business for Rs.60.” The State Government’s old age pension and the two- rupee-a-kg rice have been very helpful as most of the vendors say that they depend on them.

Kothaiammal (90), without income and bereft of social status, is a widow whose husband died three years after her marriage. Living in a wretched crammed space, she is unable to earn a living by selling vegetables. She has now abandoned it and is using the space as her home. A monthly pension of Rs.400 is the only income, which she uses to get food. Occasionally, she is offered food by her sister’s children. Sembayi (75), a migrant from Paramanur, is involved in the business for more than 50 years. One of her two daughters’ lives with her and the little space of dwelling is shared by four of them.

“We somehow manage to earn Rs.1,500 per month and buy provisions available in ration shops and manage with the vegetables we have. We go for usury loans when we run short of money,” says Sembayi.

Perumal Teppakulam Market Association secretary, T. Muthuramalingam, however claims, “We never asked for an alternative space because the opportunity cost is too high as this place has been a central location and moreover only a few shops, close to 20, have elderly people who are financially weak.”

“Otherwise, shops here manage to make better profits,” the secretary said.

By providing cheaper commodities, these urban vendors are in effect providing a form of subsidy to the urban poor, something which one can always be expected from the State.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu