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Fighting climate change through the informal economy

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Fighting climate change through the informal economy

'During these past two days of training we have gotten to learn a lot we didn't know, but this should not be only about having more information, but about what you do with what we know now.'

An interview with Laboni Mazumdar, Women´s Secretary and Kamal Siddiqui, General Secretary, Bangladesh Chinnamul Hawkers' Samity

'Hawker' is the name used to define street vendors, who sell almost all kinds of everyday necessary items. Newspaper, fruit and clothing are their main products, followed by vegetables, fish, shoes, books, cosmetics, ornaments, children's wear and men's and women's garments.

Abject poverty and growing unemployment force people to come to the cities from rural areas in search of a better life and in the quest of a livelihood. Hawkers, peddlers, small shops, rickshaw transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population. Informal jobs, which for most mean a temporary solution while searching for something better, become, in many cases, the only income and job option for many years, for decades, for a lifetime.

Bangladesh Chinnamul Hawkers Samity is one the main organisations of street vendor workers. Last year, during a seminar organised in Dhaka by OSHE, TUC and Sustainlabour on 'Climate change and adaptation' we had the opportunity to interview Kamal Siddiqui, its General Secretary and Laboni Mazumdar, the Women´s Secretary.

They started the interview by indicating how important it was for their organisation to be involved in seminars as the one that was being organised. But more remarkably was the end of the interview -let's jump to it now - when they said 'During these past two days of training we have gotten to learn a lot we didn't know, but this should not be only about having more information, but about what you do with what we know now'.

Laboni Mazumdar


To this they added 'There is something we can do to spread the message. Our paper bags are distributed all over the city'. Indeed, one activity as part of those that Bangladesh Chinnamul Hawkers Samity promote is providing paper bags to street vendors for the products they sell. This makes the work of street vendors easier, they can save a few coins and it contributes to creating some jobs for those producing these recycled bags. It is also a way to make them visible, their bags are everywhere and so are their messages, which they print on the bags, mainly on social issues and demands.

They announced that the topic for the new batch of bags would be on 'climate change and social justice' and Kamal assured that the message would be spread everywhere. 'People will talk about it, even if it is just for a few minutes, and we will have contributed to having brought the topic out to the streets'. She also added 'We will have to think on what else we can do, and we will really think on it'.

During the interview, they explained the reality and problems of street vendors in Bangladesh. Kamal indicated that according to a study they had carried out, the total number of hawkers in the country is of 2.7 million and there are some 130,000 hawkers within Dhaka City of more than 10 million people. Among them about 60,000 are permanent street hawkers and some 70,000 are seasonal hawkers. The seasonal hawkers come to the city from across the country during holy Ramadan, Eid, Puja and other festivals.

The Samity (committee) itself has a membership of 60,000 hawkers. As Laboni indicated 'We live from hand to mouth and what we earn does not allow to improve the monetary form, it is a profession of survival.' In this sense, Bangladesh Chinnamul Hawkers' Samity as well as other organisations working with street vendors were established to provide some specific support to make the life of street vendors easier.

Kamal Siddiqui


Getting organized is the first step to channelling demands and to being more effective, says Kamal: 'We put forward demands to the Government and municipality for shelter, for example. We provide support to those that fall sick through cooperative societies and we have promoted their creation'.

A network that wants to make this reality visible, prevent any type of ill treatment or abuse, (such as those committed by police when having to pay tolls) and jointly voice out demands.

They also talk about the so-called 'long-term urban policy and management measures' or 'rehabilitation' which have become recurrent issues of dispute and discussions with the municipality and Government; as there are different understandings of the policies that should be promoted.

One such example of this is past successive governments who have tried to 'rehabilitate the hawkers', like in 2008, when the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) constructed several markets for the hawkers' community. But many hawkers did not get a spot in those DCC markets because they could not afford to pay for it. The market fees were exorbitant and the spots ended up mainly being used by wealthy businessmen. This was a lost opportunity that left the poorest on the sidelines.

'We, the Bangladesh Chinnamul Hawkers' Samity also demand measures to be undertaken, ones that are truly directed at improving the situation, not just as an attempt to evict us from the pathways and streets,' they both echoed. 'For street vendors it would also be important to have adequate places where to sell their goods, it would be safer for them it would be better for the occupational health and safety. But of course, we can not pay with what we don't have,' to which Kamal added 'Now we have learned that working outdoors and not having shelter can be aggravated by climate change'. 'We need to act, we will start creating awareness on this, this will be also part of our message'.

What a great way to end an interview, following the excellent results after the two-day training seminar.

Climate change workshop


This year 2011, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka are jointly hosting the grand ICC World Cup that opened in Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on February 17, 2011. As part of the preparation for the ICC World Cup the Bangladeshi government has taken measures to keep major hubs of the capital city of Dhaka free of hawkers for the duration of the Cup. As it quoted in the press, Bangladesh Home Minister Shara Khatun said about the plan of eviction of hawkers and beggars that "no hawkers will be allowed in the streets and beggars will be evicted temporarily from many parts of the city'.

To which Nurul Hossain Murawl, the president of Bangladesh Hawkers' Federation, another of the street vendor organisations said, "We're preparing to launch a tougher movement in the city to resist the government's inhumane move as it will pauperise us". "The government cannot take away the right of their survival with honesty," he said, urging the government not to take such actions.

Kamal added: "The authorities told us that they want to clean up Dhaka for the foreign guests and showcase Dhaka as a beautiful city but they are doing that by taking away the livelihood of poor people like us". He also suggested for the government to rehabilitate the street vendors by disbursing funds received from the UN and other international organizations as a climate-compensation donation, since most of the city hawkers and vendors are affected by river erosion, drought, cyclone and hurricanes.

He claimed that many hawkers and vendors would be evicted ahead of the World Cup. People come here from all over Bangladesh for their livelihood and most of the evicted hawkers and vendors have already left and returned to their villages, he added that 'evicting us without any alternative for survival will be suicidal."

The TUC, OSHE, Sustainlabour project is showing how climate change action can be incorporated into the day-to-day life of union organising - even in the informal, harder-to-reach sectors.

Long live solidarity!

Judith Carreras, Sustainlabour

March 2011

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