The Plight of Street Vendors in Kovilpatti City

Abstract

Street vendors are often those who are unable to get regular jobs in the remunerative formal sector on account of their low level of education and skills. This paper tries to bring out the plight of women street vendors pinpointing the challenges and expectations from the job. The researcher applied factor analysis and t test to interpret the result. The sample group is rural based, illiterates, low income group, doing variety of trading activities, well experienced but fairly satisfied with the work. The study reveals that Inadequate Finance, Infrastructure Inflexibility, Improper Marketing Strategies and Insecurity and Uncertainty are identified as the challenges of street vendors. It is further concluded that the expectation of the sample respondents mainly based on the basic infrastructure, Garbage disposal and Government support. Sustained and continuous efforts are needed to improve the education, health and employment conditions of the street vendors. It is suggested that proper legal protection, basic amenities along with the welfare measures like social security and pension will brighten their live to raise their livelihood.