According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, there are 10 million street vendors in India, with Mumbai accounting for 250,000, Delhi has 450,000, Kolkata, more than 150,000, and Ahmedabad, 100,000. Most of them are immigrants or laid-off workers, work for an average 10–12 hours a day, and remain impoverished. In India, street vending makes up 14% of total (non-agricultural) urban informal employment.
These street vendors or hawkers require daily finance, which is now provided by nearby private money lenders at at an exorbitantly high interest rates as high as 10% daily. For example, a hawker requires Rs 1000 for the day, he gets Rs 900 in the morning after deducting that day’s interest. In the evening, he has to deposit Rs 1000 with the lender. This routine repeats everyday. There is also a rent for trolly used for business as well.
Covid times impacted these communities very hard. Govt announced a package where these small vendors will get a working capital loan of Rs 10000 with a moratorium of 1 yr.
So, there is a tremendous scope and market opportunity for startups to provide FinTech solutions to these micro retailers so that it is a win-win situation for both.
All the best!
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