AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT ON THE MEANING, STRATEGIES, AND DIMENSIONS OF STREET VENDING IN AN URBAN SETTING OF KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL.

In most of the third world countries like the Indian cities, informal economic livelihood activities have grown immensely over the past decade due to lack of employment opportunities in formal sectors of the urban areas in the spaces like-Kolkata, West Bengal. Specifically the urban ?poor? through such activities have gained employment and provide low cost services to a large section of the middle class residents of the area under study. Several studies have already shown that street vendors are one of the most ?marginalised? and ?vulnerable? sections of the urban and sub-urban Indian context. To perceive the meaning, strategies, livelihood, and other dimensions of this sector, the present authors purposively selects ?street vendors? including both perishable and non-perishable commodity sellers of the area under present research. The mode and approach of one year long research is grounded on the ethnographic approach and methods from designing, framing, collection of data, triangulation, transcription, data analysis and interpretation of the findings. The data were collected through semi structured and in-depth interviews and intensive case studies. The current effort reflects a detailed understanding of the processes and networking of informal sector that could provide an open scope for future research and innovative regulatory programmes, rather than opposing the informal workers, in part of the Government, initiatives should take into consideration in the process of implementing policies for the hawkers. The reflection of the present and in-depth ethnographic study represents a particular section of informal earning groups, but the present authors expects the research as a case and instance for better policy and actions of the area under study.