Livelihood Strategies, Challenges and Negotiation Practices Among Women Street Vendors in Machhapokhari, Kathmandu

Abstract

This research explores livelihood practices, challenges and negotiation strategies of women street vendors in their everyday life. This study focuses daily experiences of women street vendors in the urban informal economy settings and reveals complex social realities in Machhapokhari, a city of Kathmandu. Women street vendors as the most affected group have encountered the increasing enforcement of anti-vending policies by Kathmandu Metropolitan City without any alternative supports. Uncertainty lives of women street vendors has increased under the restriction of neoliberal urban plan. Despite contributing significantly to the urban economy, these women remain marginalized due to various reasons. Understand while intersecting factors such as gender, migration status, class, age, and single motherhood play crucial role in shaping the margin position. There is barely discourse about women street vendors globally. Still some existing research and urban policy mostly generalize women as a homogenous group which fails to see these interactional factors. The unpredictable lives of women vendors highlight the importance of understanding their strategies for survival. As main objectives of this thesis paper are: (i) To examine the combination of gender, migration histories, class, marital status, single motherhood (single migrant women) and age that influence the livelihood strategies of women street vendors. (ii) To identify specific challenges, they face due to their status as women, migrants, single mothers etc. (iii) To analyze negotiate practices towards certain challenges by women street vendors and still continuing vending work as well. Women vendors embrace vending not by choice but for survival. Due to a lack of formal jobs and practical education, a lack of skill and vocational training, and a barrier system even to entry into formal job sectors for marginal people. This research is guided by an intersectional framework drawing on the theories of Kimberle Crenshaw (1989). Using phenomenological approach within qualitative methods and purposive sampling strategies was used to select participants. The study involved field observation, in-depth interviews with 21 women vendors, and triangulation interviews with women street vendors including ward officials and members of community. The study concludes that women vendors’ hardships are not isolated but reflect broader structures of gendered and urban inequalities. Women vendors are not just economic actors but also citizen, mother, migrant, widow and caregivers. Their hardships such as tolerating customer behavior, daily struggle for public space, harassment and abuse, eviction, and lack of social protection are compounded by gendered roles, socio economic status, migration histories, age factors and lack of kin support. Despite these challenges women display creativity and resilience through flexible vending strategies and social network support. Informal network act as survival mechanism by providing information, solidarity, and protection in chaos urban setting. Overall, this study shows that women street vendors use different livelihood strategies, and these strategies are smart responses to deep structural problems. They must always negotiate with the situation and they resist challenges in their daily lives. Their survival depends on social networks and they also rely on creative tactics and strong personal effort. These actions challenge neoliberal urban governance and they also create a sense of belonging in a city that mostly excludes them. This research argues that it is important to recognize these practices and such recognition can help build urban policies that are more inclusive. These policies should move beyond criminalizing vendors and they should support their right to the city as marginalized people. Ultimately, this research contributes to the fields of feminist urban studies, informal economy, and intersectional sociology by illustrating complex realities of lived experiences of women vendors are totally ignored in public discourse and policymaking.