‘Green biz’ came to rescue of have-nots during lockdown
Rickshaw-pullers, vendors switched to vegetable selling to eke out a living
LUCKNOW: Ajit Tripathi is an electrician by profession living in Mulayamnagar locality here. The sudden clamping of the lockdown on March 25 left him without a job and he had no option but to switch to a different work altogether -- that of selling vegetables. He manages to earn enough to stay afloat in the crisis.
At a time when the Covid-19 lockdown shut down most economic activities and banned sale of non essential goods for more than two months, agriculture and allied sectors came to the rescue to thousands of people like Ajit in cities of Uttar Pradesh by ensuring an alternative regular income to them.
Roadside vendors, scrap dealers, e-rickshaw pullers and artisans all switched over to selling veggies and seasonal fruits to earn two square meals a day for themselves and their families.
Many of them are going back to their old jobs with the graded opening of the lockdown, but others are still to make up their minds about the switch-over.
Nanku used to put up a stall selling bread-pakora, chholebhature etc on Masjid Road near Pani Gaon. After the lockdown, he started selling cucumbers from a barrow on the same road. “I found this to be the easiest thing to do without any investment and this helped me by bringing a daily income of Rs 150-200,” he said.
However, Nanku returned to his old job after Unlock-1 began. “But the situation is still not normal and I am not getting many customers. So I am thinking of continuing to sell seasonal fruits as well since I have enough space,” he said.
Principal secretary Devesh Chaturvedi said it was true that agriculture had taken care of livelihood of many people who lost their source of income due to the lockdown in urban areas. These people, he said, started selling vegetables and seasonal fruits to make both ends meet and one could easily identify some of them by having a look at them.
“All this became possible after the government put a mechanism in place and issued curfew passes to vendors so that they could make home delivery of essentials,” Chaturvedi pointed out.
To cite instances, Dheeraj Rajpoot, an e-rickshaw puller and resident of Madiyaon, Sitapur Road, landed in soup after the public transport was banned following the Covid-19 lockdown. Like many others he also adopted vegetable-selling as his new profession.
“I started selling green vegetables after the lockdown put a break on public transport and was able to earn Rs-300-400 every day which was good enough,” he said, adding “Now, I am in two minds over going back to plying the e-rickshaw” he said.
Rajesh, scrap dealer, started selling fruits from a platform of a shop that remained closed due to the lockdown in Mahanagar. “Now, the shop has started opening and the lockdown is also over, so I have returned to my old job,” he said.
Though mithai shops were not
RAJESH, SCRAP DEALER, STARTED SELLING FRUITS FROM A PLATFORM OF A SHOP THAT REMAINED CLOSED DUE TO THE LOCKDOWN IN MAHANAGAR, AS DOOR-TO-DOOR COLLECTION OF SCRAP WAS NOT POSSIBLE AFTER THE LOCKDOWN
allowed to open in the lockdown, many of the owners can still be seen selling milk and paneer regularly from outside their shuttered shops to continue to have some regular income every day.
An economist, AK Singh said there was no doubt agriculture and allied sectors like animal husbandry remained robust and unaffected by the lockdown and this helped many people earn living in cities also.
As they were not able to do their routine jobs, many of them took to selling vegetables and seasonal fruits “These are basically survival strategies that many people adopted in cities during the lockdown,” he said.