Hawkers at Traffic Signals

A grounded ethnographic study by Siddhant Modi and Rajshree Deshmukh

Abstract
A hawker is a person who sells goods while carrying them and moving about. They sell inexpensive items
on streets, pavements, roads, on buses and trains, bus stops, traffic signals etc. This is a grounded study
focused on hawkers selling their wares at traffic signals across bangalore. Curiosity to know more about
this phenomena prompted us to take up this topic. We wished to know how these people lived, what
problems they faced and how they managed to survive with the meagre income that they would be
earning. Our aim was to see who were these people who took up this hazardous job and why they did it.
An underlying purpose was also to come up with some recommendations to improve the lives of these
sellers.

Keywords
Hawker, Traffic-Signal, Migrants, Settlers, Urban poor, commuters, traffic

Introduction

Hawking ​We did an ethnographic research on hawkers at traffic signals at junctions in Bangalore. A

hawker is a person who sells goods while carrying them and moving about. They sell inexpensive items
on streets, pavements, roads, on buses and trains, bus stops, traffic signals etc.
The hawkers in our study are the ones selling small items to vehicles that stop at traffic signals. Hawkers
at traffic signals are a common occurrence in developing countries, where these hawkers can be found in
cities which have a large number of vehicles and traffic signals. In India also these people abound in
major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur etc.

Background ​Though we don’t have historical data, we surmise that these sellers must have appeared
at signals with increase in vehicles, and the subsequent increase in number and duration of signals. This
might be true for all the places where this practice is seen. Also with growing consumerism and increasing
high class shopping streets, these hawkers have started to earmark these streets.
According to the ​Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation​, there are 10 million street vendors,
including traffic signal hawkers in ​India​, with ​Mumbai​ accounting for 250,000, ​Delhi​ has 200,000, ​Kolkata​,
more than 150,000, and Ahmedabad, 100,000​*​. A number of similar magnitude can be expected in
Bangalore. However, as the case with other government figures, the actual number has a good chance of
being higher than government figures. This is the number of street vendors and ​not​ just the hawkers at
traffic signals in particular. We assume the number of traffic signal hawkers must also be significant.

Bengaluru ​Bangalore, officially known as Bengaluru, is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. It
has a population of about 10 million, making it the third most populous city and fifth most populous urban
agglomeration in India. Its elevation is over 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level, the highest of India's major
cities​.​ Currently Bangalore has become the city of migrants where people from all over India come here
looking for better job opportunities. Also with evolution of Bangalore as the IT hub of India and increase in
consumerism, there is rise of consumer market areas in Bangalore which also gave rise to eco-system of
hawkers and vendors at city streets and junctions. In our ethnographic study about hawkers in Bangalore,
we aim to understand their day to day functioning and their importance in our society through observing
and understanding their activities, routine, business, needs, requirements in accordance to the needs and
expectations of our society in this modernising era.

Hawkers rushing to sell to commuters at Yeshwanthpur Junction

 Living in traffic, at MG Road Junction

Approach
Approach of field-study ​This was a grounded study; we did not have a hypothesis in mind while doing
the research. We intended to learn everything about the subject during the research period. We covered 5
busy junctions of bangalore which had hawkers selling to vehicles during the course of study. We
observed the activities of hawkers and interviewed them. Some insights came from one of the
researcher’s prior experience while travelling on the roads of Bengaluru over past 3 years. We also
travelled briefly to city market from where many of the hawkers purchase their stock. We did 15 hours of
observation. The breakdown is as follows:
 Type Traffic Junction Time spent (hrs)

Major junction for bus travellers and locals for Heavy Yeswanthpur 2
YPR market and YPR railway junction

Major food and shopping junction Medium MG Road 3

Major bus junction on highway to outside city Heavy Goraguntepalya 3+3

Major bus junction from North Bangalore to Heavy Hebbal 1½

workplaces in city (Manyata)

Recreational park Light Cubbon Park 1

Semi-food and shopping junction Medium Mathikere 1½

Total 15 hrs

Observation included time of day, signal length—both red and green, type of vehicles at the signal,
nearby places, type of crowd, number of sellers at the junction and at each of the roads of the junction,
items being sold and activities and appearance of the hawkers. We clicked photographs of hawkers’
activities and their surroundings
In interviews we employed two approaches to gain trust-
1. Buy what the hawkers are selling and ask them questions. Since you did something for them,
they will feel obliged to entertain you
2. Be around the signal observing. Once hawkers establish in their minds that you are not a
presence against them, move in to ask questions about subjects varying from traffic and business
to including personal life details
The first strategy wasn’t very sustainable as it wasn’t in our capacity to buy from everyone. If trust came
without buying their items, it was better.In fact it was a realisation that we need not buy from them to get
them to open up to us. Many would divulge information happily once they realised that there was no need
to be afraid of us.
 Buying a fidget spinner to start conversation with hawkers at MG Road

In the beginning we went around taking photos from the beginning, not hiding from the hawkers that we
were covering them. Our basis being that photography might act as an ice-breaker, as mentioned in
Doing Visual Ethnography by Sarah pink​. But due to cultural and contextual difference or due to incorrect
usage of the method, it led to hawkers being wary of us. Especially the hawkers who were new in the
area as they feared that we were there to evict them.
The Rajasthani hawkers at Yeshwanthpur crossing were wary of us. They ran away from
us. One hawker who got friendly with us tried to convince them that we weren’t there to
evict them, but to no avail. They were new in the city.
 When we tried to interview this group of men, they refused to believe that we were doing this
for research and were students

While interviewing we began with general, impersonal questions about business first. Like their supply,
profit, since when they have been at the signal, what else do they sell, where else in bangalore do they
sell, who buys their items etc, then we gradually moved on to more personal questions like literacy,
family members, age, name etc. Few of them hesitated to have their photo taken. Although they allowed
us to take photos of their products on sale. We didn’t make notes while talking to them so as not to make
them conscious and scared.
 Left:​ This is a young man who navigated dangerously through traffic. He left his old job
at the Orion mall nearby. He didn’t mind at all us clicking his photo. He tried to convince
others as well to let us have their photo taken.

Right:​ Raju, a mat seller who belonged to Varanasi, sat down and gave a long interview.
But didn’t agree to be photographed. Therefore at his suggestion, we clicked just the
mats that he was selling

Approach of Analysis​ ​We examined photographs taken by us and often found details that were
forgotten or missed out during our observation. We interviewed 17 respondents, some of them individually
and some as a group.We sorted all the replies in spreadsheet for easy comparison. Our attempt is to find
patterns from our research.
Also, for visual comparison, we plan to create a data map of signals covered and kind of products sold
along with other detailed observations.

Demographics​ ​Age, Ethnicity, Literacy, Family data, Appearance​ 

Most sellers were young, under 35 years of age. We speculate the reason to be physically taxing nature
of this job. Although we saw few elderly hawkers accompanying their family in hawking or hawking alone
to support their living, they couldn’t cover that many vehicles on the signals as compared to their younger
companions.
More than 80% of sellers that we observed were migrants from different parts of the country, mostly being
from Rajasthan and UP.
Also almost all people we interviewed left studies before or on passing 10th standard.
 Left:​ Amir had arrived in Bangalore 2 weeks ago. He had left his studies in 9th standard
to accompany his brother, pictured on right. They worked on the same road at the MG
Road crossing. One person covered the cars that were ahead, the other took the behind.
They produced their own cotton candies at their place in KR Market.

.
Many were in this occupation along with their families. Different family members worked together at the
same or different locations.
Men mostly wore shirt/t-shirt and pants/jeans. Women wore mostly saris. The dress of women from
Rajasthan in our study were invariably traditional, traditional variation of sari and jewelry

Business
Supply ​Sellers mentioned few places as their place of purchase. City market (KR Market),
Yeshwanthpur market etc. All these are local, highly-populated markets where things are available at
wholesale rates. We made a trip to KR Market to see what kind of place it was. It is comparable to Abdul
Rahman St. (Crawford market) in Mumbai and Gandhinagar in Delhi. A lot of small shops and vendors,
congested streets and roads, and people coming from different places in the city to buy things there.
All of the interviewed hawkers from Rajasthan did not buy from local markets, choosing instead to order
their stock from other cities. Many respondents sourced their stuff from Delhi. Renu and her father, both
from Rajasthan who sold fidget spinners and car accessories are an example of this. The fidget spinners
which are available at ₹100-120 locally, come for ₹90 when sourced from Delhi.

Working Hours ​Except the hawkers at MG road, hawkers seemed ply only during daylight hours,
retiring for the day in many cases in late afternoon. One would think that being low wage earners, they
would try to maximise their working hours and earn more profit , but it turns out that the scene is different.
There seem to be two reasons for this:
1. It is a physically taxing job. They have to walk continuously carrying goods in the traffic.
2. They carry only enough stock to be sold in one day as:
○ They have less working capital
○ They have no way to carry and store large amount of stock
Season and trend ​Fidget spinner, Dehradun guy, Umbrellas and Mats.

Strategy ​Individually, we observed that not a lot of hawkers marketed their items to two-wheelers. They
would skip the first few rows of vehicles stopped at the signal which would predominantly be
two-wheelers. This may be due to the fact that two wheelers wouldn’t buy as there is no space to keep
the purchased item immediately. If there is no pillion rider, the driver can’t eat consumables. Even for
pillion rider eating while having wind blow in your face would be hard. Many products were car
accessories like phone chargers for car, windshield phone stands, sunshades, mats, steering wheel
covers, driver back support etc.
Bhagya, who sold keychains with gods and cartoon characters at Yeshwanthpur crossing had her right
hand disfigured due to Polio. She was able to use this fact to her advantage. People bought her goods, in
her words, taking pity on her hand.

Bhagya who had a crippled right hand, has daily profit of ₹700-800 which is higher than
other sellers who earn ₹300-400 daily

Group Strategy ​In our observation, we noticed that hawkers generally formed groups of friends and
companions or had family along. The groups or family generally worked on same signal but different
streets selling same products to cover maximum crowd possible. For the same reason, there were more
number of people selling same product at same street when number of vehicles and signal stopping time
was more. The group strategy also created a friendly bond among the hawkers hence encouraging each
other throughout the day. The hawkers group split their lunch time so that signal is always occupied with
their hawkers. The family group also practices selling different products at same street to maximise their
sale. Renu was selling fidget spinners at M.G Road while her uncle was selling car accessories on the
same street; her father and cousin were selling fidget spinners and car accessories same as Renu and
her uncle on adjacent street. Hence they were maximising their sale by covering more streets and
products. Their family daily works from around 10AM to night 10PM and earn upto 3000 to 5000 per day.

Left: ​Renu and her father; ​Right: ​Renu’s maternal uncle

This Rajasthani family sold same items, covering different roads

Left: ​Guddi selling balloons; ​Right: ​Rest of her family, having tea
The members of this family sold different items at the same road. The man sold car
accessories, one women sold inflated ​Chota Bheem​ toys, the other woman sold DIY
models and Guddi sold balloons. Guddi, in her words was apparently in Bengaluru during
vacations, but we doubt her as one of the women said that Guddi was the one cooking
food for them.

Persistent Selling/Begging ​Since there has been a rise in arrest of beggars and rehabilitating them in
places like Beggars’ Colony, beggars have modified their begging into persistent selling/begging. There
has been increase in number of children and people selling long pens, stickers and roses for money.
They literally ask to buy the products saying they need money to eat and feed their children, and they
stick around following people for quite some time. This crowd is generally found in shopping streets with
upper and upper-middle class people roam. These persistent sellers target well dressed people and beg
them to buy the stickers and long pens triggering people’s guilty conscious. We encountered such
persistent sellers at M.G Road and Church Street, Koramangala Forum mall signal, Sony signal at
Koramangala etc.

Choosing items and choosing area ​Choice of item to sell and choosing the crossing where to sell it
are both complementary. We asked Sonu, who sells ID card covers, why he didn’t sell in areas such as
near shopping malls. His response was that there was no demand for such items there because the
crowd there is high class and isn’t into these things. Selling his items at Yeshwanthpur crossing, Mekhri
Circle made more sense as this crowd would need and buy card covers. This crowd included city bus
drivers, taxi drivers, rickshaw drivers and people from lower and middle class families travelling on
two-wheelers, buses, autos and taxis.

Sonu selling a card cover to a bus driver. We helped him post an ad to

olx.com to sell his smartphone as he had a loan of ₹5,000 and was
under pressure to repay the amount.

Where intercity buses plied, we could find more sellers of eatables such as peanuts, Mysore vada,
cucumbers, pineapples. People on short journeys wouldn’t buy them probably. The sellers often waited
for and targeted ​only​ inter-city city buses run by ​Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation ​(KSRTC).
They might have learned from experience that travellers in deluxe buses/ private buses don’t go for their
stuff. Also at junctions like Hebbal where Bangalore middle and lower class travellers change intra-city
buses, we found peanut and fried food sellers who would come inside the bus too to sell their products.
They were targeting travelling customers who would take another 30 minutes to 1~2 hours to reach their
home from work and light food would be their passing time and light filler during their travel.
Hebbal is also a bottleneck for traffic flow from North to city-center. The traffic comprised mainly of buses,
cars and 2 wheelers travelling to work areas. Hence, hawkers here were also targeting cars with car
accessories and wipers, along with light food items like popcorn. This was the only junction where we
observed food items being sold to car travellers, this must be keeping in mind the wait time in traffic jams
near work areas ahead of Hebbal.
Cotton candy sellers were in areas which were recreational in nature. These included MG Road and
Cubbon Park. We thought cotton candy would be mostly purchased by children. But the sellers said that
everyone buys them.

Social Life
Social Interactions ​These people mostly knew everyone who worked at the signal and they had small
exchanges from time to time. We saw on Kariyappa signal the tea seller giving tea to the family of
hawkers there without payment, which may be settled on daily or weekly basis. On the signal before
Goraguntepalya we saw the few sellers engaging in small friendly squabble. Another instance of
interaction was when we asked a Kannadiga lady hawker some questions in Hindi, since she couldn’t
understand Hindi, she took help of a car driver stopped at signal for translation.

This young woman with two children sold wipers at the signal. She didn’t
know Hindi, so asked the driver of a passing car to translate what we
said for her. The three sitting on divider of the road.
Food ​Many of the hawkers either brought food from home or went home and ate. One reason
mentioned for this was the cost of eating out. Although there were few who ate outside food.

Visit to home ​Everyone who had their families in some other part of the country went to their native
place once in 3-4 months. Those who were from Karnataka (but not in or around Bangalore) went more
frequently, around twice a month. One interesting thing that we heard that some of these Rajasthani
people took flights home, they they told us this with amusement and happiness. This speaks of the
success of their business. And hence there are more Rajasthanis coming to Bangalore to practice
hawking.

Problems
Traffic ​Mostly the hawkers were careful around traffic. They waited till traffic came to proper stop, and
moved at sides​. ​One guy at the signal before Goraguntepalya In one case, we observed few of the sellers
being careless around traffic, in particular, one guy selling towels. He got to the middle of the road
displaying his articles before vehicles stopped and vehicles had to go around him. He was new to the job,
therefore in enthusiasm may not be taking safety seriously.
Another potentially dangerous thing we saw was that these hawkers sat on the dividers between straight
and left going traffic. They also walked along these dividers which wasn’t as dangerous when on roads
such as MG Road where traffic wasn’t as fast, but on Tumkur road, which is a highway it appeared pretty
dangerous.

Life on dividers and between the traffic. Pollution and road accidents are constant hazards

Capturing of signals ​When these people work in groups, often they capture the signal for themselves
and don’t let any other hawker come and sell their items there. We did not see this tendency in hawkers
that worked individually. They say that if they allow new people to come there and too many people
gather on one signal only then cops will start troubling them.
As such we had thought that these hawkers must be in daily strife with the law and would be paying cops
bribes to be allowed to do their trade. But this turned out to be not a universal case. Sonu, the card cover
seller from Yeshwanthpur signal said that cops rather than bothering them, helped them out when some
customers behaved wrongly with them. Indeed just alongside Sonu and Bhagya’s place of trade was
Traffic Police’s office.
One cotton candy seller from cubbon park said that police does chase them away. Even Raju the mat
seller said so. These sellers invariably return after some time; what else can they do for their living as
they lack other skills.

Pollution ​Spending 10-12 hours daily in traffic must definitely be detrimental to health, even more so
than car drivers who now have the convenience of ACs. The level of air pollution that these hawkers face
must be comparable to that faced by auto rickshaw and bus drivers in busy parts of cities. A study may be
conducted on health effects of pollution on traffic signal hawkers.
We asked Raju, a seller of car mats at the signal before Goraguntepalya, if why no one wears face masks
as a measure against pollution. He said that if the hawkers wear masks, the commuters will be afraid of
them and assume them to be thieves.

Legal Status and Rights

Hawkers and Vendors have similar meaning and they are often swapped. Though Hawking is a street
trade done by moving from one place to another while Vending is another street trade that is done by
occupying a space on pavements i.e. temporary shelters.The ​street vendors act of 2014​ talks about
vendors, but almost wholly overlooks hawking at traffic signals, as if this problem doesn’t exist. The Act
does have a passing mention of hawkers, but nothing is concretely said. This leaves the hawkers at traffic
signals in gray area. And since government doesn’t recognise the issue, it does not oblige to do anything
about it.
 In the background of the hawkers at Yeshwanthpur junction, stands the
Yeshwanthpur Traffic Police Station. The police help out the hawkers
against commuters who cause problems

Being in gray area leaves scope for exploitation. They may be asked to pay bribes or protection money to
trade at the traffic signal. A more powerful group may monopolise a traffic signal. There would be no
formal hearing of their complaints. Being in gray area may make them afraid to go to law to seek help.
However we didn’t encounter anyone who said that they were being harassed by law. It may be so that
since vendors have to stay in one place, the practice of bribery and protection money may be more
prevalent with them.

Possible Interventions
Throughout our research we stumbled upon few gaps which need to be addressed and can be
considered as design interventions:

● Currently hawkers at signals are not recognized by the government and there is no law to protect
them. Hence these hawkers are always in fear of volunteers from ashrams and NGOs who put
them in rehabilitation centres considering it illegal to sell on streets. Recognition to sellers through
proper verification would differentiate hawkers from persistent begging-sellers and also
encourage and secure the hawkers.
● Hawkers at signals are always at risk of being run over by traffic. It would help if these hawkers
are given traffic jackets and caps which make them visible in day as well as night. The jackets
can be given by a major company as well, which can act as brand advertising at major junctions
for them too, making it a win-win situation.The jackets and caps will also make the hawkers look
trustworthy and recognized among citizens, hence further encouraging the hawkers.
 ● All the traffic signals the hawkers work at are generally jammed and have heavy air and noise
pollution. The hawkers don’t prefer wearing pollution masks since it decreases the trust levels
among citizens, and thus affecting their sales. If wearing masks becomes a normal trend in
society, maybe then they would start wearing pollution masks. Or there can be better ways to
decrease pollution at traffic signals.
● 80% of hawkers we observed were migrants from North India and many of them came from
villages who had their own farms there. They came to Bangalore to earn better living since they
couldn’t making much living from farming. But here many of them live in uncomfortable situations
instead of having a better living condition back home. There is scope of research and government
interventions in such regions to find out solutions to reduce such migration. Migration is also
giving rise in unorganised and unhygienic living conditions in tents by the roadside. Government
can intervene to form new policies and schemes for these people.

Conclusion
In metro like Bangalore where work hours vary from 9 AM to 9 PM, and hours are lost in traffic, hawkers
have become a convenience for middle and lower class public. At signals, the hawkers are finding
opportunities according to people’s needs and are earning their living through selling products majorly to
middle and lower class consumers. These hawkers change their products according to consumability
levels; example, they sell umbrellas during rains, balloons and cotton candies near park area, car
accessories at signals with heavy traffic of cars, toys and keychains at school routes, etc.

But rise in hawkers is also giving rise to unorganised and unhygienic living conditions in the city. Also,
they are risking their lives living and running on signal junctions also causing little inconvenience for the
traffic flow. This area needs to be recognized and regularized to organise it into a convenient and better
setup to sustain in our developing nation.