NCERT Book Class 6 Civics Urban Livelihoods

Chapter 9

Urban

Livelihoods

Working on the Street

This is the city where my cousin lives. I've been here only a few times. It is very big. Once, when I came here, my cousin took me around. We left the house early in the morning. As we turned the corner onto the main street we saw that it was already buzzing with activity. The vegetable vendor was busy arranging tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers in baskets at her stall so that people could see what she had to sell. Next to her stall was a lovely, colourful one that sold all kinds of flowers.

We bought a red rose and a yellow rose. On the pavement opposite we saw a person selling newspapers with a small crowd of people around him. Everyone wanted to read the news! Buses whizzed past and there were auto-rickshaws filled with school-children. Nearby, under a tree, a cobbler sat taking his tools and materials out of a small tin box. Next to him the roadside barber had begun his work: he already had a customer who wanted an early-morning shave!

A little way down the road, a woman was pushing along a cart with all kinds of plastic bottles, boxes, hairpins, clips etc. in it while another person on a cycle trolley was carrying vegetables to sell to people in their houses. We came to a place where rickshaws were standing in a row waiting for customers. We decided to take one to the market, which was about two kilometres down the road.

Like Bachchu Manjhi a large number of people in the city work on the streets. In a survey of Ahmedabad city it was found that 12 per cent of all the workers in the city were people working on the street. They sometimes sell things or repair them or provide a service.

They work on their own. They are not employed by anyone and therefore have to organise their own work. They have to plan how much to purchase, as well as where and how to set up their shops. Their shops are usually temporary structures: sometimes just some boards or papers spread over discarded boxes or maybe a canvas sheet hung up on a few poles. They may also use their own carts or simply a plastic sheet spread on the pavement. They can be asked to dismantle their shops at any time by the police. They have no security. There are certain parts of the city where these hawkers are not allowed to enter.

Vendors sell things that are often prepared at home by their families who purchase, clean, sort and make them ready to sell. For example, those who sell food or snacks on the street, prepare most of these at home

Question.

1. Read and discuss the following description of the living conditions of workers who come to the labour chowk. 

Most workers that we find at the labour chowk cannot afford permanent accommodation and so sleep on pavements near the chowk, or they pay Rs 6 a night for a bed at a nearby night shelter run by the Municipal Corporation. To compensate for the lack of security, local tea and cigarette shops function as banks, moneylenders and safety lockers, all rolled into one. Most workers leave their tools at these shops for the night for safekeeping, and pass on any extra money to them. The shopkeepers keep the money safely and also offer loans to labourers in need.

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 6 Civics Urban Livelihoods