'Chai Garam': An Ethnographic Inquiry into Unorganized Retailing in Eastern India

Abstract

Literature on unorganized retailing is sparse and moreover there is not even a concrete definition of ‘unorganized retailing’. Added to this, the phenomenon has not been investigated to a high extent because of its prominence in south Asian countries. Women vendors in particularity were often subjected to harassment from the police and municipal officials. In the same study, the researcher mentioned that a study conducted by National Institute of Public Health and Hygiene on Kolkata’s food vendors found that street food in the city were cheap and nutritious. Moreover, cooking in front of the consumers ensured that the food was fresh and unadulterated. On similar thoughts, Dey and Dasgupta (2010), in their study of Kolkata street hawkers, came out with few interesting findings. Their study was based on responses generated through structured questionnaires that were collected from more than two thousand street hawkers belonging to different zones of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. During the interview, majority of respondents have mentioned that they are content in their present occupation and wish to continue in same vein in future. This goes on to signify how much stripped of opportunity the vendors are to think of alternate career plans. The vendors also showed visible lack of interest to venture to new businesses or to avail support from government.