Hyderabad: Street-side vendors and petty shops worry about frequent shutdowns

Hyderabad: "Since the closer of the schools and colleges around, few are turning up during the evening times making the revenues to drop considerably for the past two months," says Srinivas, a street-side shop vendor selling snacks.

The shop located in Chikkadapalli for the last 15 years has seen many ups and downs. But, nothing on the scale of the financial constraints that he is experiencing for the past year due to the drop in the sales. "On account of COVID, the family has to depend on the relief provided through the public distribution shops and hand loans. Even after the unlock down-5, the number of people coming to the street-side eateries has come down drastically," he added.

The physical reopening of schools and colleges in February this year had given some hope. As the students purchase Rs 10 to Rs 30 while on their way back to homes after school and college hours. But, that was only short-lived as the educational institutions were closed down within less than a month after the reopening causing a steep drop in the sales.

Bhaskar, who sells green coconuts and sugarcane juice in Ashoknagar says both are a preferred drink by all during the summer. But, there was a sharp change in peoples preferences after the COVID. More people preferring green coconut water to sugarcane juice.

This has made a considerable drop in the revenues with the loss in sales of sugarcane juice. Earlier, the daily sales fetched anywhere from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000. But, now it is hard to get even Rs 400. The loss of evening hour sales due to the declaration of curfew might pose further trouble, he said.

The street-side shops and petty vendors located in the vicinity of the educational institutions are dependent on considerable daily income generated when the schools and colleges function normally. Yadagiri another petty shop vendor who took a Mudra loan and running his shop in Barkatpura has to face several hardships all along with the COVID lockdown.

And, there are about 4 lakh street vendors who have identified in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area under the Prime Minister Street Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Yojana.

They were given a handholding under the scheme to extend Rs 10,000 collateral-free loan, to kickstart their businesses faced losses due to the COVID.

However, "The frequent and frequency of shutdowns continue then there is no hope for small businesses like us to see normalcy comes back any soon," pointed out Rahman, who runs a bike repairing shop in Gandhi Nagar.