Welcome to the the Talking to People Project. For the first post of this Project, I am in Thiruvottriyur market in North Chennai, which is a street full of tiny shops and street vendors. Most shopkeepers and vendors in this market have been running their business at the same spot for more than 35 years, but in the last few months the municipal corporation has been threatening to evict the street vendors in order to widen the street.
I had a conversation with Bavani and Saleema to learn about their lives. Bavani is a street vendor selling flowers and Saleema runs a small shop.
Bavani: I have been selling flowers at this spot for 38 years. But now I hear that these shops are going to be removed to widen the road.
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| Bavani selling flowers and Saleema in the pooja shop |
Bavani: There is a hospital coming up where the fish market is. The roadside shops are going to be cleared, since there has to be enough space for two ambulance vehicles to pass through.
Me: Are you protesting against the eviction?
Bavani: How can I do that alone? People are not willing to protest. They say ‘How can we question the government.’
Me: Will you be compensated?
Bavani: I don’t know. I do have a card to make a claim. (She is referring to the shop-owners association card.)
Bavani sits in front of a tiny shop selling pooja items run by
Saleema. Saleema joins the conversation.
Saleema: A part of my shop will also be demolished..this part that juts into the road. But I don’t have a card. We rent this shop. We have been running this shop for 37 years.
Bavani: There is a government hospital two stops away. Why does a hospital have to be built in this market place, destroying so many livelihoods? People with means can manage..what will we do, if they destroy our livelihoods? All the shopkeepers are worried.
Me (to Bavani): Where did you grow up?
Bavani: Right here, down that street (pointing). My parents had a flower shop, I helped them since I was eight years old. Then I got married and didn’t work for two years, then I got back to selling flowers.
Me: What about your husband?
Bavani: He worked since he was ten. He drove a pushcart. He died two years ago.
Me: What about your children?
Bavani: They are settled now. My daughter is a lawyer. My son has a bank loan business. They managed to be successful, because of Alibasha sir.
Alibasha runs Zenith Tuition Center in his house in Thiruvottriyur. It is aimed at children of working class parents. Besides helping children with homework, Alibasha connects with volunteers and artists and organizes various activities for the children, such as outings to the city, photography and film workshops, tree plantation activities.
Me: How much does he charge?
Bavani: We could pay what we could. At that time, I was in a lot of financial difficulty. I would pay for 1 month, then not pay for 4 months. He wouldn’t even ask.
He has helped so many people. To admit my children into college, he is the one who came and helped me. I didn't know anything – whom to talk to, or where to go. We can arrange money somehow by borrowing, but to know which college to go to, and what process to follow, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without him. My daughter is an advocate today because of him.
Bavani: When the kids were growing up, I would leave them and come here, and work from morning to night. A neighbor told me about the tuition center. He (the neighbor) would tell me “Sister, why do you keep yelling at them (the kids) for not studying”, and he got them enrolled in the tuition center.
Bavani: I trusted him (Alibasha) to lead my children in the right path.
Me: Did you go to school?
Bavani : No.
Bavani frequently greets passers-by. Her posture is erect, with the poise of someone who occupies a respectable position in the space around her. She calls out a friend who is passing by and introduces her to me.
Bavani: This is Jamuna. Her sons also studied in Alibasha’s tuition center.
Jamuna: Yes, now they are married and settled.
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| Flower-sellers in the Thiruvottriyur market |
Me: Is there a lot of competition here?
Bavani: No, there is nothing between us. One day she might make more money, and the next day I might make more than her. We are all just concerned about the possible eviction.
Jamuna: But business has been slow compared to how it was before Corona.
Me: How was it for you all during Corona?
Bavani What could we do? It was tough. How long can one sit at home without an income? If they allowed us to open the shop for one hour, we would make the best out of that. We would just earn enough for the day’s expenses.
Jamuna: Sometimes we would hide and sell. We would keep running and hiding.
Jamuna leaves to attend to her shop.
Bavani: I don’t like to ask my son for money. If I have some money in my pocket, I can go to a temple when I feel like it. I don’t go to the cinema. I only like going to temples. I have been to temples in many cities.
Bavani: I have been to Kashi twice. I have been to Mantralaya, Shirdi. I pray to all Gods, including Allah and Jesus. But Murugan is my favorite god. Since my childhood, Murugan has been my favorite god.
Me: How did you go to these farway places?
Bavani: A group of us here organize it and go together.
Saleema in the adjacent shop has been listening to us. Bavani encourages me to talk to her.
Bavani: Ivanga nanna pesuvanga. She is a good talker.
Me (to Saleema): Do you travel, like Bavani does?
Saleema: No, I haven’t been anywhere. I have to take care of my son’s child who has developmental issues. The child’s mother left, and my son remarried. I take care of the child, so I can’t go anywhere.
In fact, Saleema didn’t go out of the house for most of her life. As a child she was taught by an ustad who came to her house. She learned to read the Quran in Arabic. After her husband died, her son took over the shop, and she started managing the shop for 3 hours every afternoon. The shop is rented.
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| Saleema |
Saleema: The shop owner is always harassing us. We have been running this shop for 37 years, and he keeps threatening to evict us. We pay Rs 2000 as rent. And for that much money, this place does not even have electricity.
Me: Can you have a solar light, like that shop (I point).
Saleema: The owner won’t allow us. He will break it. intha battery light eriyarthukke avar eriyaraaru. Just this battery lamp that we use fires up his irritation.
Saleema: We feel hurt by his behavior. We can’t just earn our livelihood and live in peace. He owns a row of shops. He has ten houses..can you publicize that, put it on TV?
Saleema to Bavani: Shall I tell her (me) about my other big trouble?
Bavani shrugs.
Saleema: Let me tell you. My mother’s grandfather was a very rich man. He has property worth Rs 500 crore. He had 24 kids through 2 wives. Now there is a dispute between the two branches of the family. The other side of the family agreed to settle giving each grandchild (my mother is a grandchild) Rs 2 crore. I would be more than happy with that, but my uncles are not happy. They want more, and the legal battle keeps dragging on. We have so much money, but here we are, suffering every day.
Bavani: Nobody in our family has had much money like that, and maybe life is simpler this way.
After this they insist on buying tea for me.
Me: Do you think anything has changed in these last 38 years.
Bavani: Nothing. Nothing has changed. Back then it was a struggle for survival, and it is the same now. I can’t think of any change. The Metro has come, if you want to count that as change.
Vendors in the market appear to be confused about the eviction. When asked whether the eviction is likely, the typical answer is
“Namma poga mattom. Namma enga povom?” We won’t go, where can we go,
which is simultaneously a statement of resistance, and a statement of hopelessness. When street vendors are evicted, the state does not compensate them. As a result, some of the vendors will stop working, and others will find alternate spots after a period of struggle and lost income.
A majority of vendors are women who have not had much (or any) education and who have never had any other employment opportunities. Through years of struggle they have built up a business and established a community at this site. And now, the state threatens to destroy whatever they have built.
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