Nagaland: Project to empower women street vendors yields good returns

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Oct. 21 (EMN): As part of the Entrepreneurs Associates’ (EA) initiative ‘Uplifting women street vendors’,  a felicitation and mentoring of women street vendors was conducted at the Red Cross conference hall, in Kohima, on Monday.

On achieving their savings-target of INR 10,000, a total of 58 street vendors received a bonus of INR 2000 each from the EA.

In her introductory speech, advisor of EA, Neikule Doulo said such achievements were indicative of the project bearing fruit.

When the project first started, most of the vendors did not have long-term savings. Since its inception in October 2017, the programme has covered more than 1660 street vendors from across the state, she informed.

Doulo said that the vendors fuel rural economy as they deal with the rural farming community. In fact, she said, every single penny they earn finds its way back to the rural people.

At the present, she said, the EA is looking into two major issues faced by the street vendors on daily basis: the amount of expenditure incurred on toilet use and transportation.

‘Per day, each vendor has to pay about INR 50 for toilet use, which is half of their hard-earned amount. On the other hand, the cost of transportation incurred on daily basis is huge. Taking these issues into consideration, the EA is working on a way to reduce the cost,’ she said.

The chairperson of Nagaland State Social Welfare Board (NSSWB), Bano Chishi suggested setting up of street vendors’ organisation in their respective region. She felt that forming such organisations would help solve their issues at various levels.

The assistant state coordinator of NSSWB, R Juliana Medom shared information about the schemes and projects under NSSWB. She spoke about Ujjawala, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, one stop centre, CM Helpline 181, crèche system etc.

A short movie produced by the EA tiled ‘Racing against the Sun’ was also screened during the event. It tells the story about how street vendors travel 134 km at night from Pfütsero to Dimapur, to sell their vegetables.