A Study on the Impediments for the Street Vendors in Kerala after the Introduction of Shopping Malls

Abstract

Street vending has been a profession since time immemorial and street vendors have been an integral part of our urban history and culture. Street vendors, the prominent stake holders of the un-organized sector contribute to the national economy while promising easy-to-access facility to the larger population dependent on them. In Kerala Street vendors are the integral part of urban economies and offering easy access to a wide range of goods and services in public spaces. They sell everything from fresh vegetables to prepared foods; from building materials to garments and crafts, from consumer electronics to auto repairs to haircuts. The term street vendor includes all segments of stationary vendors and mobile vendors commonly termed as hawkers, peddlers, footpath dukaandars, sidewalk traders, pavement vendorsetc.The introduction of Supermarkets and shopping malls have a negative impact on the small scale vendors of the small scale merchants. As the high-end shopping malls and the supermarkets are getting hype in the present world the importance of small scale vendors and the small scale merchants is decreasing in the eye of people. Everyone in today's world is getting inclined towards the high-end Markets and shopping malls which are making a negative impact on the sales of street vendors in Kerala. After considering all the above facts, the present paper focuses to analyse the Impediments for the street vendors in Kerala after the introduction of shopping malls. For which Kerala was selected for the study.

Key Words:Street vendors, Shopping malls, Impediments.