GyanDhara: Approval For The First Batch Of Vending Zones

The street vendors of Bhubaneswar came together formed a group and elected a leader from among themselves. Then they proceeded to submit a proposal to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. The proposal was rejected and re-submitted multiple times and they continued to struggle for a period of more than five years.

In 2007 when Aparajita Sarangi became the Commissioner of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. That’s when things finally started happening. She gave the Sangh her full support and helped in any way she could. In was during her administration that 54 vending zones were approved.

However, in the last few years work has slowed down considerably. 

Our First Stop: Nayak Babu

We decided to start our project by talking to Mr. Nayak. He is the President of the Xavier Vending Zone and, for us, a well spring of information. He kindly took the time to talk to us and answer all our questions. He even made a special effort to talk in Hindi because all of us do not understand Oriya.

We learnt about how the “Sanghathan” came into existence, how it works, who the members are and how much they had to struggle to get to where they are now. Nayak babu talked about how much pride they feel when people from other cities come to study the Vending Zone Operational Model and try to emulate them. He did however stress that there is a long way to go and many hurdles that they have yet to cross but he is hopeful and looks forward to the future.

Nayak babu was patient with us and answered all our questions, ranging from “How do you deal with the government?” to “How are relations between the leaders of the various vending zones?” and “How do you rate the vending zones in Bhubaneswar compared to the ones that have recently come up in other cities?”