Carrying vegetables on his cart, Lakshiputra Kembhavi is roaming various localities in Vijayapura city selling vegetables. In another corner of the city, Mohammed Hashim is selling muskmelons from a cart.
Till a few days ago, Mr. Kembhavi used to sell aluminum utensils and Mr. Hashim worked in a garage.
The ongoing lockdown has made them to venture into a different occupation to eke out a living.
The government had banned all vegetable markets to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and allowed hawkers to sell vegetables.
The reasonsing was that people would gather at one place in markets which would defeat the idea of social distancing.
After the decision to allow only pushcarts to sell vegetables and fruits, several people, who lsot their livelihood owing to the lockdown, decided to sell vegetables.
“When I heard that government is allowing hawkers to sell vegetables, I decided to use this opportunity to earn a living,” Mr. Kembhavi said.
Having his own pushcart, he applied for special pass at the city corporation. “Since then, I am selling vegetables and earning around ₹500-600 a day,” he said.
In case of Mr. Hashim, he hired a pushcart locally and decided to sell fruits.
Speaking to The Hindu, Harsha Shetty, City Corporation Commissioner said that the corporation has issued passes to some 530 hawkers to sell vegetable and fruits.
He said that while only a few people are traditional vegetable sellers, a majority of them are from different occupations.
Thanks to the permission to hawkers, people are getting vegetables easily as pushcarts are coming to their doorsteps and the hawkers also get a livelihood.
