Street vending is a very ancient tradition in Bengali Culture. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, once called the city of " Bawanna Bazaar and Teppanno Goli which means the city of 52 markets and 53 lanes. This simple statement by the historian expresses it all. Dhaka has a past history of being the center of trade from ancient time, when ‘Mughals’ rules the whole Indian Sub-Continent. Dhaka at that time was the capital of Bengal; later on the capital was shifted to Murshidabad and after that to Calcutta during the British era. From that time Street vendors were the integral part of the total economic activities.‘Chawk Bazaar,‘ Islampur’,’Tanti Bazaar’ and Shakharipatti are the different names of open and semi closed Bazaars (Market). People used to sell their products just by taking a place besides the busiest road. The common concept was ‘ more the people, more the chances of selling goods and making profits. Still now the culture of street vending is present in our society. A 1981 survey , "Study of Dhaka Conurbation" estimated about 65% of all employment was in the informal sector. [Source: "Urban Poor in Bangladesh" by Khan, Amanat Ullah.] In this paper I shall discuss about the street vending as one of the most desirable sector of employment of poor people in least developed country like Bangladesh and discuss about some economical issues related with it.

What Type of work or Employment pattern exists in Informal Sector of Bangladesh?

These are the common field that people look for jobs in informal sector.

Street Vending and other Petty retailing.

Repair and other personal services

Crafts and other Manufacturing.

Construction works

Cart and Rickshaw pullers (Three wheelers human driven).

Among them street vending is one of the major employment areas in informal sector. It covers 37 to 40% of the informal employment.

There are different types of street vendors in Dhaka City, we can classified them by types of work they used to have.

Why the Number of Vendor Is Increasing?

If we take the example of Garment sellers, the number of street vendors in this field have become 10 times or higher than it was in 1980. Bangladesh Government allows Garment Industry to be located in the main city centers. They are the main sources of supply that Vendors use to sell in the street. The main striking information is they get this semi defective goods for virtually no cost at all, because Bangladesh Government with the consent of foreign buyer made rules that any garment industry which are export orientated cannot sell their rejected goods to the local market.

Where Do These Vendors come from?

They are mostly from rural areas, as Dhaka holds all sorts of economical activity within itself comparing to the other towns or cities in Bangladesh and its growing day by day, so the migration tendency is always towards the capital city, which has over 8 million people. People from different places come to Dhaka City as they can get any sorts of employment. Most of the time street vending becomes the first job that a person easily gets.

Is There Any Need for Street Vendors?

There is a marked difference between upper income group, higher middle, middle and lower income group in Bangladesh. Middle income groups are mostly service holders and sometime they run small business. Lower income groups are Class 3 and 4 employees mostly are clerks ranked lower than that. A person entering into a Government job as class 1 officer earn only as little as $ 150 a month. So one could guess what would be the salary for Class 2, 3 and 4 employees. So they are the middle income group and they mostly depends on street vendors to buy their every day needs. So, they have little incentives to buy their goods from the high priced malls, they only go there when there is a big occasion is forthcoming like Holy Eid for Muslims. The middle income groups are in majority in terms of numbers of population so, streets vendors finds their job relatively easy as they are consistently getting buyers. Where there’s a need there is chances to make some profit out of it. The middle income group also have the opportunity to bargain.

Why Street Vending is highly preferred By the Vendors?

The common reasons are as follows:

• They don’t have to pay sales Tax, Rent or Income Tax.

• They don’t need a fixed place to run their business.

• They are mobile in nature so they can easily move to another street where business is sharply growing.

• They can use the public spaces like a big shopping mall where other commercial activities are going on parallel.

• Street vending is a labor intensive business rather than capital; so more people can easily fit into this business.

• The nature of Dhaka, though it has zoning regulation, is mixed use in nature. Zoning laws are not strictly maintained, so anywhere one could find the mixed set of residential and commercial environment. The street vendors use this situation as an advantage and reside all over along the main city roads.

Is There Any Agglomeration of Economies?

Street vendors enjoy the proximity of being in the commercial places. They also form a Cluster of Groups who are selling common items. Which is in a sense the agglomeration of economies.

Does the Market have Free Entry?

Yes, in Bangladesh entry to the informal market is very easy. Street vending and other petty retailing cover 37 to 40% of the informal employment. [Source: Survey made by Center for Urban Studies (CUS) Bangladesh]. There are hawkers associations in Hawkers market, which are housed in Permanent and Semi permanent structures. The Bangladesh Government allocates them in the busiest area of the town so these shops are in full swing. Sometimes if anyone is not member of this association it’s hard to get a place there. But the street is always free, if we ignore the unusual tax that actually comes from the "Street Criminal Gangs" and from the local Police!!! (I got this information when I was involved in a field survey for my 4^th year final design class for Urban in fill in ‘Babupura’, which is a local hawkers market.)

Is It a Competitive Market?

The statement is very true in the case of Street vending and petty retailing in Dhaka. People have the choice to bargain and the motive of the vendors is to sell his goods by all means. Buyers sometimes get very good deals on price of the item he is purchasing. Vendors are constantly competing with one another. But there are some differences as well, when vendors have fixed stalls and forms a association, they act as a cartel and then sometime they regulate price to a limit that is still competitive with the supermarkets but again raising their profit margin. The low-income buyers face a sharp price change in terms of their affordability.

Is the Competition between Hawkers or Vendors with Supermarkets or Mall Fair?

The street vendors don’t pay Taxes and those who are placed in a permanent shops by the government gives very nominal fees because of the subsidy and not only that they don’t pay any Income tax even. The government of Bangladesh has given them some prominent location to have their business going. This is good for those vendors of course but they are in unfair competition with the shop owners who have their business in High priced malls or Supermarkets. They have to pay sales Tax, Income tax and Rents whereas the vendors are enjoying Subsidies. So, the shop owners in the supermarkets don’t have the incentives to lower prices.

Some Interesting Facts

To counter the competition from hawkers and vendors many shop owners also maintained some ‘disguised’ vendors just in front of their shops and they don’t give tax to the Government.

Many supermarket shop owners also owns some shops in the hawkers market by disguising to be a hawker, actually they bought those shops from other vendors who are quitting from their business or shifting their business to another place.

Positive Externalities

Let’s talk about the positive one first.As the 40% people in Dhaka is under the poverty level and some 40% is just above it, it’s obvious that street vendors are the only means for getting the daily needs. John C. Cross states in his book about Informal Politics of Mexico that " In its efficient and economical distribution of goods and services, street vending also appears to perform an important macro economic role, which, added to its role in providing sustenance for hundred of families"[p.119]. I think it’s also true for Bangladesh.

Negative Externalities

• Traffic congestion. The traffic flow of Dhaka is slow because of having different modes of transportation, which have different speed. Some of these are human driven (like Rickshaw, a try wheeler). So, the addition of vendors in the street also deteriorates this situation.

• Vendors who sell food sometimes pollute the environment by throwing the rotten foodstuffs in the street.

• Street foods are not always hygienic as most of the vendors sells the prepared food until its finished and it may continue for 2 or 3 days.

• They are sometime involved in selling smuggled goods and drugs.

Conclusion