Social Media: A hub to promote Indian Vendors

In India, there are millions of daily-wage workers and self-employed entrepreneurs under the unorganized sector of labour. These groups were the most affected during the pandemic. Eight months into lockdown, their situations seem to have only worsened. The livelihoods of several street vendors were jeopardised by the pandemic. However, what was most needed to tackle this situation was the promotion of their products. Social media influencers took to their respective social media platforms to sensitize their followers on the hardships of vendors and to give voice to the needy ones, which otherwise, would have remained hidden in oblivion. Here are a few of those stories to bring warmth to our hearts.

On the night of October 7, a video of an elderly couple from Delhi, explaining the plight of their failing business in their food kiosk “Baba Ka Dhaba”, was posted on Instagram by a social media influencer. The next morning, all social media platforms were flooded with this video and captions which provided the address of the kiosk and trended a tag #BabaKaDhaba. Social media influencers were brought together with this hashtag on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Thus, the Dhaba received funds, and customers queued up in front of the shop. Zomato, the leading foodservice app, has now added the kiosk to its list of restaurants. This still feels like a dream for the Old Baba and his wife. In an interview conducted by NDTV, the couple thanked everyone who helped them during this period of crisis and concluded their speech of gratitude with a prayer of blessing.

In July 2020, a civic official overturned a 13-year-old egg seller’s cart after the latter refused to give him Rs.100 as bribe in Indore. The young chap was asked to either move the cart or pay the money. The video of the egg cart being tipped was shot by a pedestrian who later posted the footage on Twitter. This video found a tremendous wave of sharing and tagging on several other social media platforms. As a result, help and compassion poured into the boy's life in the form of money.

The “Bhendi Bazaar Vegetable Vendor,” Ashok Singh, found help and support from the people of Mumbai after a Mirror photographer captured a heartbroken man, sitting and weeping somewhere near King’s circle in the city of Mumbai. Ashok Singh had opened his shop for the first time during the pandemic, but had to pull the shutters down, right away, as floods hit the shop. He had to discard his unsold vegetables and had no other option, but to walk back home. After this picture reached social media users in Mumbai, Ashok Singh found a deposit of nearly Rs.2 lakhs in his bank account, which many people offered him with love.

These are a few stories which ended well due to the right use of social media. After #BabaKaDhaba went viral, similar tags like #VocalForLocal also came up as a massive trend to encourage people to support and help vendors during this terrible pandemic. In the present world, social media plays a very crucial part in our day-to-day life, and the power to make the right or wrong use of it lies in our hands. “Every coin has two sides,” and it depends on us to choose the virtuous, ethical and prudent side.

Editors: Prema Tressa Abraham, Aurelin Ruth