Street Vendors in Kathmandu

Dashain time, and it is impossible to walk the sidewalks of Kathmandu, without jostling past people. The over-head bridges and the foot-paths are packed with people selling and buying things. And you could buy anything from vegetables, to stationery, to clothes, on these side-walks.

One of the reasons for people to buy from the streets, instead of shops is the comparatively low prices. You would pay half the price of a proper shop, for some of the goods available here. However, business is not always good. Laxmi Lama has been doing business on the footh-paths for a couple of years now. She makes a couple of hundred rupees a day, which is just enough to buy her meals. "Business has become more competitive now. In the past there were only a few street vendors. Now there are so many, that you don't get many customers, even if you sit here all day," she says.

Moreover, these small businesses are also hounded by Municipality employees, who illegally collect a daily amount from them, as rent for the space. Saraswati Karki, who is selling vegetable by the foot-bridge in Jamal, smiles when I ask her how much she pays the municipality employees for the security of her little business, "It's just a small amount every day to buy tea. We have to help each other for the sake of business."

Municipality has not been able to relocate the Street Vendors, despite continued assurances to relocate them. Rain, sun and the metropolitan police that often chase them from one place to another, there are plenty of problems faced by these people doing business under an open sky. But come the festive season, and there’s always hope for better business.