Exploring the daily lives of women street vendors in India

ABSTRACT

Indian women enter the informal workforce for a range of reasons. Women food vendors tend to dominate low-income, low-skill activities, such as selling perishable food items. The aim of this study was to investigate the experiences of women food vendors in India. Twenty-four women were interviewed in 2015 and 2016 about financial matters, livelihoods, family, and housing, and the experience of vending. Findings indicate that women vendors are financially vulnerable, need greater access to education, better work and living conditions, and greater financial management options. Policies and programmes aimed at informal sector workers must recognise gender-specific vulnerabilities facing women vendors.

KEYWORDS:

• India
• vendors
• food insecurity
• food environment
• women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Availability of data and material

The survey used in this study will be made available as a supplementary file.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded as part of Dr McKay’s Academic Study Leave in 2016. Deakin university funded the travel that facilitated the collection of data.

Notes on contributors

Fiona H. McKay

Dr Fiona McKay is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University. Dr McKay is a qualitative researcher who works with human rights and vulnerable populations. She has several years’ experience exploring inequities and inequities experienced by groups whose lives are impacted by social and institutional policies and negative community perceptions.

Richard H. Osborne

Prof Richard Osborne is Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences and Director, Centre for Global Health and Equity, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design. He holds a prestigious NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship (2019–23), is an adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2018 top 1% most influential researcher globally in the cross-field category). He holds Honorary Professor positions at Copenhagen University, Denmark, and Thammasat University, Thailand.