By Brian Turnbull
Brian Turnbull, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Instruction with the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at the University of South Florida and was a participant in the 2019-2020 CAORC-AIIS Faculty Development Seminar to India. In this essay he describes what ‘informal economies’ are and discusses their importance in India.
Walking the streets of Mysore, I was struck by how clear and open the sidewalks were along the main thoroughfares. Having walked through the streets of many other Indian cities, I was accustomed to walking on the street edges due to the number of hawkers and storefronts encroaching on the sidewalks that blocked most pedestrian traffic. Space is always at a premium, so any open space is commandeered by entrepreneurs unable to afford storefront space. However, in Mysore something was different. I enquired and was told the municipal corporation had managed to strike a deal with street-side sellers to open up the sidewalks. What this deal entailed and where the hawkers have gone remains a mystery to me, but I hope to investigate further in the future. To begin this project, I have reviewed the literature on official attempts to regulate street-sellers in India, and how incredibly massive the informal economy, of which hawkers are just the tip of the iceberg, truly is in the country.