Street vendors livid over survey, say it is ill-timed

‘The exercise during COVID restrictions will result in exclusion of deserving beneficiaries’

Street vendors across the State are in a dilemma in the backdrop of the ongoing survey in local bodies to issue identity cards and certificates to the deserving beneficiaries. They are of the view that the survey is ill-timed considering the pandemic situation. They have also demanded that the government put it off until the situation improves. A large number of street vendors have been left jobless due to several reasons, including COVID-19 restrictions, which have prevented them from carrying out business. Some are in quarantine too. Holding a survey in such a situation will result in a number of deserving street vendors getting excluded from the beneficiary list, complained P.A. Jirar, State secretary, Kerala Street Vending Labourers’ Federation (AITUC). “The State government had decided to conduct the survey and publish a report in every local body before July 31. However, it could not be taken forward as planned in most local bodies. And, when the survey was held, it was done in a hurry, and several deserving street vendors could not make it into the list, as they were not doing business on days the survey was held,” Mr. Jirar said.