Abstract
This photo essay captures some of the female entrepreneurs who operate from the footpaths of Connaught Place—New Delhi’s oldest and toniest shopping district, around Christmas. Notwithstanding their unusual appearance, each woman embodies the many challenges common to labour in unorganized sector in India and the world.
Introduction
India’s cultural calendar is chock-a-block with a variety of festivals around the year, each with its own set of unique rituals, festivities and a participation that cuts across communities. Christmas is no exception. Even though Christians account for less than 3 per cent of the country’s population, its revelries can be seen in almost every part of India. The nation’s capital has a modest Christian population but is no exception to this merriment. The city boasts of some of the country’s most well-known churches, all decorated for the occasion. Like any other festival, Christmas also offers commercial opportunities for retailers at every level. Among other places, the footpaths of Connaught Place—New Delhi’s oldest and toniest shopping district—are filled with modest entrepreneurs braving the winter to earn tiny margins on inexpensive Christmas-related merchandise.
This photo essay looks at this migrant, and largely female, workforce that operates between parked cars, next to trash bins and in the midst of rushing feet. Operating illegally, these sellers fend for themselves against municipal authorities, the police as well as customers who haggle over already modest prices or are uninterested in making any purchases and only borrow a prop for clicking photos.
On the positive side, being well lit, crowded and efficiently policed, the area enables these working-class women to safely carry on their business till late night in a public space in a manner impossible in other parts of Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). The fact that Connaught Place is visited by hundreds of thousands of well-heeled shoppers makes it an attractive location. However, unlike Connaught Place’s holiday season neon signage and decked-up show-window mannequins, these pavement entrepreneurs also have to model their wares, often several of them at the same time, to attract customers. Notwithstanding their unusual appearance, each woman here embodies the many challenges common to labour in unorganized sector in India and the world.
The women featured here are largely from Mumbai, Solapur and Nashik in Maharashtra. Most of them are in Delhi only during Christmas time. They own the merchandise and carefully pack away unsold inventory for the following year. They were reluctant to share more details about themselves. Hence, their images in this photo essay do not carry identification captions.
A decorated restaurant and store window in New Delhi’s Connaught Place during Christmas–New Year holiday season.
A woman entrepreneur selling modestly priced Christmas merchandise on the pavement opposite to the stores and restaurants.
In addition to dealing with customers haggling over already modest prices, these pavement entrepreneurs also have to put up with customers who are uninterested in making any purchases, and only borrowing the merchandise to click a few photos.
In between dealing with customers and municipal authorities, some of the women have to take care of their babies.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.