Pandemic throws lives of push cart vendors out of gear

HYDERABAD: For petty traders, who make a living by selling food items, vegetables, fruits, cheap cosmetic products and all and sundry on their push carts, life has turned topsy-turvy following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

These traders are yet to come to their normal lives or back to their regular earnings, even after 18 months of malady. Most of these push cart hawkers are settlers from other towns. Many left their families at their hometown and returned to the capital as their earnings dropped drastically.

Each cart which used to do an average business of Rs 2,000 each day before March 2020 is not even in a position to make around Rs 5,00 to Rs 600.

After the ease of the first lockdown, many lost employment and lot of migrants have not returned, as schools, colleges and offices are still operating from homes.

Vijay Pandit, a resident of Jharkhand, who has a fruit-juice push cart, near Music College, Ramkoti, said, “I have been doing business with this ‘bandi’ since 1993. This city has given me so much. Before the lockdown, I used to make around Rs 2,000 each day, now we don’t even make Rs 500. Almost one year we have been without business. I have four daughters and one son. I left them at our home town as it’s hard to take care of their expenses in the city as of now.”

Bhasker Rao, another push cart vendor, says, “We are in a bad situation, the lockdown pushed us into utter poverty. We believe in hard work and don’t expect any aid from anyone. We just hope things will be back to normal and we get back our business.”

Raju Yadhav, a pani puri vendor, says, “The business is very bad, two lockdowns made our business go down. Customers we used to have before the pandemic rarely visit us.”