Empowering Urban Poor in Slums through Provision of Street Vendors Push-Carts - India

S3IDF is a small scale sustainable infrastructure development fund with the mission of reducing poverty and pollution. Their project, Empowering Urban Poor in Slums through Provision of Street Vendors Push-Carts, is distributing solar PV lanterns and home lighting systems to rural low-income households via street vendor push carts.

Key facts:

This activity operates in six locations in three districts. The activity plans to have 20 pushcarts in each location;
About 120 people will be directly involved in this activity;
Each pushcart will benefit a family of at least four people, eventually benefiting a total of 600 people.

The problem

The urban poor have low living standards due to a lack of employment. Recent studies show that the migrant poor who come from rural areas to the cities in search of employment has been increasing rapidly in all developing countries including India.

The solution

This activity is helping rural low-income people acquire the skills to establish small- and micro-enterprises selling solar PV equipment. This equipment can be paid off in about 12 months. The project proposes to introduce about 20 specially designed pushcarts to women’s self-help groups. The women rent out pushcarts to unemployed migrants at reasonable prices. Street vendors typically sell various ready-to-eat foods like Idli and dosa, consumer items like toothpaste and soap, produce and meats and energy items like cookstoves and solar lanterns.

Helping the planet

This activity is reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the amount of kerosene and LPG-based systems street vendors are using and replacing them with solar PV based cookstoves and lighting systems. Solar panels are installed on top of the pushcart and solar PV lighting systems are installed inside to illuminate the wares inside the pushcart. Furthermore, several vendors will be selling improved and more efficient cookstoves and biomass pellets. Many of the vendors themselves may adopt the use of improved cookstoves and solar lighting in their homes. The creation of active self-help groups engaged in this project will become the major pressure points for public action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Helping people

This project benefits migrant workers who come from rural areas where climate change has caused them to lose their work in the agricultural sector. The project provides the means for the unemployed migrants to earn a decent wage on a daily basis and meet their household expenditures. This leads to improved health, education and security co-benefits. The push cart vendors have better means and are in a position to rent accommodations and send their children to nearby education institutions.

Scaling Up

The project is comprised of six units under six self-help groups, each provided with 20 pushcarts. This number can be easily scaled up by having additional units in the same area or in different geographical areas.