Hyderabad: Capital conundrum for small-time vendors

Hyderabad: Afzal Taj, a chaiwala who used to support his family till March by running a tea-stall, found it difficult to sustain during more than 2 months of severe lockdown. Coping with ailments like blood pressure and diabetes, he also struggles to procure medicine on time.

In a similar instance, Rajeshwari, whose entire family depended on her husband's income, an autowallah, used to sell vegetables in the past. But now, she lost all hope after spending all their savings and is desperate for help. Echoing the sentiment, Rabia bee, a fruit seller for 15 years, laments that her husband had a paralytic attack and she had been taking care of her family. But with the lockdown all was lost, and they had to survive on the ration kits provided by different people. Now people have also stopped giving rations and she does not have any money to restart her business.

According to the NGO, Confederation of Voluntary Associations, which studied the cases of petty businessmen before and after the lockdown, most of them survived the ordeal with the help of voluntary organizations, which mostly engaged in 'distribution of kits'. But helping them stand back on their feet should be the priority, lest they should fall prey to money lenders, which would set in motion a vicious cycle of poverty and debt. "If grants of just Rs 2,000 to 5,000 can be provided, thousands can get back into business and support themselves and their families for years," feels Dr Mazher Hussain, Executive Director of COVA, while speaking to The Hans India.

On Sunday, the organisation launched a programme to provide working capital to petty business persons to restore their businesses by giving grants from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 to 26 persons who were engaged in selling vegetables, fruits, flowers and running tea stall to enable them to restart their businesses at Chaderghat. "Average tenure in business for these 26 people was 10 years but most could not restart their businesses despite easing of the Lockdown due to lack of working capital. It is proposed to identify and to provide grants to at least 1000 such small trades in Hyderabad in the coming weeks to enable them to restore their businesses," he added.