Editor,
Apropos your editorial “The Brexit referendum” (ST, June 25, 2016), my view is that this will facilitate better focus on decision making and efficient administration. It is a fact that the British people have made a very clear decision to take a different path. It is clear that Brexit will harm Indian companies in Britain since Europe is the best market for them. India is currently dependent on its development based on total Western model and support, with nations such as USA, UK leading in doing businesses with us. The drop in the pound is likely to result in an increase in Indian students choosing the UK as a destination for higher education as this will make studying there significantly cheaper. Britain should now make the best use of its membership of every other international club. Our Indian policy makers should consider Brexit as a change to improve our trade ties with Britain. On the other hand Britain will certainly become great in the coming years in development and in improving the lives of its 65 million people.
Yours etc.,
Vinod C Dixit
Ahmedabad – 15
Beware of corporate hawkers
Editor,
We have read several opinions and suggestions on the hawkers’ issue lately. While some consider them a burden, others generously pour out their sympathies. The letters by Rev N. B. Diengdoh and Fabian Lyngdoh are very thought-provoking. Well, the hawkers undoubtedly deserve our compassion because they are poor. But at any rate, they do not reserve the right to encroach upon the public places and thereby cause inconvenience to the pedestrians. Ms. Patricia Mukhim, in her beautiful article, has correctly pointed out how hawkers pose as a huge stumbling block for the public and also in the free movement of the bazaar vehicles and so on.
All opinions are truly helpful to arrive at the logical conclusion. Indeed, compassion, morality, rationality and legality are fundamental ingredients to deal with any kind of thorny issues. Incidentally, of late, my attention is drawn to what has been less discussed but it is going to make a dent in the whole sphere of trading system and the market economy. In the process our beloved hawkers, who struggle to make ends meet, will be pounded to dust.
For the past several years, not just our outside roads and footpaths but the very threshold of our mind and inner emotions have been invaded by a swarm of national and international companies that sell a whole lot of items ranging from handkerchiefs, socks, pan masala to latest mobile phones, high-end computers, washing machine, micro-ovens, or anything under the sky. Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, Infibeam, India Mart, Ebay, HomeShop18 are few that have already become household names. They parade their merchandise which unmistakably greet us with every single page we open on the net.
With a sufficient dose of glamour, they have already encroached upon the inner space of our mentality which the poor hawkers can’t ever dream of. These companies employ every possible crafty scheme to increase our temptation to buy more and more. Here even a lazy boy goes crazy to quickly click the mouse to order for an item that just caught his fascination. Many have already become shopaholics due to marketing strategies of these giant online companies. Their offers are endless and so are their alluring coupons which hardly fail to entice simple-hearted people to walk into their traps. No wonder online shopping is A craze and the items are offered at fairly lesser prices too.
But how these online companies have been impacting the socio-economic status of each regular retail trader, petty hawkers and the society at large is matter of a serious concern. All will agree that they will not only eat into the business opportunities of the poor hawkers but they have already sent shock waves in the normal retail trading system and also the wholesale bazaar. Systematic surveys might throw up a lot of information that might push the regular market businessmen into the depths of depression. Again, a chain of retail shopping malls is another roaring phenomenon of metro cities which is slowly making inroads into small towns like ours. Reliance, Big Bazaar, Bharti Retail, Hypercity Future Group are some fun-filled shopping stops that will not let you to pay even a glance at the normal shops in the market, not to speak of sweaty vendors on the streets. Exotic baby candies to a variety of trendy dress materials, and an array of vacuum cleaners to heart-throbbing music systems, TVs and so on and so forth are attractively on display in these fully computerized AC shopping palaces. Our impoverished hawkers or normal market traders cannot at all match up to these big companies.
Just check up your personal purchasing behaviour over three to four years. How many times have you visited Big Bazaar and how many deliveries have you received from, Flipkart, Snapdeal, HomeShop et al? On occasions you have also impulsively purchased even those articles which you never needed from these big malls or through online shopping. Our mass purchasing from these big companies will adversely hit the small traders, market wholesalers and hawkers. Now let’s assume that 60% of public start doing their complete shopping online or by visiting Big Bazaar only, which is very likely within a few years from now. What will be the consequence then? Will it not force the normal traders to shut down their business and setup archery counters? Then, what will be the fate of the illiterate hawkers who have taken this profession not out of choice but out of compulsion to fill their stomachs?
It is a very a dangerous trend where the rich are getting richer while the poor are impoverished and deprived in every respect? Will this sad tale of disparity melt the heart of the government?
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali
Shillong-2