The roadside vendors at Mahjoor Nagar Bridge, Zero Bridge and other corners of Srinagar have chosen work over begging. The least we can do is buy from them.
Every evening, as traffic slows near Mahjoor Nagar Bridge and Zero Bridge, a lone figure sits on the footpath with a small bundle of socks, gloves, handkerchiefs or scarves spread out on a cloth. Sometimes it is an elderly man. Often it is a woman, and at times a young girl. They do not call out. They do not chase customers. They wait, frequently in the cold, for someone to stop.
These are not traders in the ordinary sense. They have no shop, no licence and no cart. They are people who have run out of options and have decided, all the same, that they will not hold out a hand for charity. They have taken the harder road. They buy a few dozen items at wholesale, sit by the road for hours and earn a margin that may barely cover a day’s vegetables. That is their business plan. It is also their dignity.
It is worth pausing on that choice. Begging is easier. It carries no cost of stock, no risk of unsold goods, no long hours in the open. In a city where beggars are a common sight at every signal and shrine, these vendors have refused that path. They would rather sell a pair of socks for a few rupees than accept the same amount as alms. That decision tells us something about the kind of people they are, and it deserves respect.
When the seller is a woman or a girl, the choice carries even more weight. She has stepped out of her home, sat on a public road and faced the stares of passers-by because her family needs it. Behind her is a sick parent, a child in school, a widow’s household or a home with no other earning member. When someone buys a pair of socks, the money goes straight to a kitchen, a chemist or a school fee. There is no middleman and no wastage. It is the most direct form of support one can offer.
So we make a simple appeal to our readers. The next time you cross these bridges, stop. Buy a pair of socks, a handkerchief or whatever is on offer. Do not haggle over ten rupees with someone whose entire day’s earning may not touch three hundred. If you do not need the item, buy it anyway and give it to someone who does. The cost to you is small. The value to them is large.
We also urge the Srinagar Municipal Corporation and the traffic police to show restraint. A single vendor occupies a few feet of footpath and is no threat to order or traffic. Clearing them away in the name of beautification pushes another family towards desperation. If the administration wants to help, it should give them a safe, designated spot and leave them in peace.
A society is judged by how it treats those who are trying hardest with the least. These vendors are trying. Let us meet them halfway.
