Setho ka Gaon

Over the past few days, there has been a spree of viral videos of small retailers who either run a food stall or has a vegetable trolley and are struggling to keep their businesses alive. The situation is not something which has acted as a shock to everybody, anybody who is closely paying attention to the economic front of the country during the pandemic anticipated a situation like this. The informal sector which comprises around 90% of people in employment is going to be the front line sector to take all the stress which the economy will face due to the pandemic.

 

The water has now reached a substantial point where it is becoming difficult for us to feel the stones. The government seems to be handicapped and the indigent hopes for mercy from the almighty. The constant argument going on is - it's a global pandemic and it is but natural that every country in the world must be equally affected. By this time we all know that "equally" in the former sentence is a shaggy doggy story.

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However, everything is not that dull and desolate and we have still not reached the whimsical dystopia, the internet which has been abused over the recent past years for all its impetus for fake news and propaganda narratives, this time it has done something polar optimistic. An old couple who runs a food stall were captured on a food vlogger’s phone which presented before us the dire situation of the impact of this catastrophe where the old couple was struggling to make their ends meet let alone not even were they able to recover their investment of a day's business with just some chiller in their revenue basket. The internet exploded when people saw their condition and started gathering around their shop to help them. 

 

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Communities are the last resort for the indigent and quite rightly so the community has come up this time to help the ones in desperate need. As concerned, this may look like a moral activity done by the people for a great cause to help the needy. Part of it is even true. Although amidst all this charity we all seem to be missing a rather technical aspect of how an economy works under a situation of crisis like this when we go to buy a plate of breakfast from that Old couple operating in Malviya Nagar in the milieu of helping them. Economics provides us with ways to help them and all the other similar businesses more efficiently and effectively. Let's look at the ways how this is folding out in contrast to the way we think it is. 

 

When the video went viral of the old couple shedding tears about their helpless situation it reached almost everyone who has a smartphone and is active on social media. Each one of us’ heart fell looking at them and all of us wanted to contribute in some way or the other to help them. Kanta Prasad and Badami Devi with help of social media collected around 2700 USD a huge variance from the time when the food vlogger asked them how much they earn where he showed just a few notes of ten and twenty rupees. From Bollywood stars to cricketers to YouTubers all paid their visit to the place and tried helping them in some way or the other.

 

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This was just the beginning of many such videos that followed since, of small businesses and vendors who are struggling to survive. Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah write in their book In Service Of Republic: The Art and Science of Economic Policy that a time of crisis is probably the most judicious time to implement a pending policy. Although their context might have been in terms of public policy the same can be applied to the way society reacts in a time of a catastrophe. Social engineering and cultural changes are ought to happen and we can observe it around us. However, there are always better ways to do things as they might seem in the first impression. Helping someone in need is the first instinct that comes to our mind and with the reach of the internet, it has only expanded in the ways to help the indigent. Nonetheless, there are more than that we could do and not just the first visible solution to things which are generally short term in nature. 

 

So, what more can be done to help the ones who are hit most severely by the pandemic? The solution does not lie always in the hands of governments, policymakers, and members of the civil society. We as individual members of society must bring our hand forward in the most optimum way possible. 

 

What happens when we go out to help that one person who is in our dire need?

 

Addressing the aberrations of emotionally driven narratives should be the foremost thing. Hence, when we lend a helping hand to one indigent party in the picture because of the sheer serendipity that a food blogger got hold of her is in a way injustice to a lot of similar vendors and small informal businesses who were nearby itself but the only thing that they lacked was “luck” that they didn't get the exposure at the right time and they are left behind in the race. We cannot make luck a deciding factor on who to help and who to spare. From the consumer’s point of view, it is the problem of free-rider where investors invest in items other people in the market are investing as they are in the notion that it must be right as the other person must be having complete information. The same applies here. A person living in Karol Bagh wouldn't have come otherwise to eat at their stall because the cost of utility (satisfaction) they were paying earlier visiting that shop in Malviya Nagar was much higher than they would pay now. Even now it is pretty much the same but since people are doing it for a "good cause" their utility feels justified.

 

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The given event is a very natural way in which any consumer would behave given the situation she is in. In fact, in times like these people tend to be fearful and fall into the vicious trap of “psychological recession”. However, incidents like these show that people are ready to overcome their fears and dare to go out for consumption. One man’s expense is another man’s income therefore we need to carry out our expenses wisely to not hurt someone else’s income.

 

What are the ways?

 

Individuals who constitute the community have always come in handy to mitigate the ones who are disregarded by the events in the catastrophe. This valuable relationship between the individuals and the community is the driving factor that has kept the civilization bustling for so long. The Internet and its reach have collectively amplified the ways to assist this idea of shared values. People amid disruption and moral compass often tend to overlook that all of their assistance may cater only to a short period. Therefore, private players and Information technology must come forward and fill this vacuum of fragmented information to try and organize resources in the most optimum way.

 

● Creating an agency - Zomato and Pepsi in no time put up their banners outside the little couples' shop creating brand value for them. Multinational and creative startups can use this time to improve their sales (as their sales must have plummeted too) and use it as an opportunity to create market value for the indigent by providing them an intermediary where they can sell their food to people who are willing to pay for it while sitting at their homes.

 

● Instead of traveling miles reaching a place for the only purpose of ‘charity’, citizens should try being vigilant around their localities and neighborhoods and find helping small businesses like these and buying things from them. 

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Acting as an intermediary

 

● Another way could be to connect them to a student mess or a student colony where there is usually a very high demand for "Ghar ka khana" at affordable rates. This will perfectly act as a utilitarian way of achieving customer seller relationships and needs.

 

● A lot of charity programs are already going on where people who have lost their jobs are given food and other beneficiaries. NGOs working on them can collaborate with them.

 

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It is the most imperative time for the established as well as the newborn startups to try and connect with all these informal vendors under a common umbrella which can create an ample amount of supply chain assisting everybody multi laterally. The incumbent firms will be earning, the indigent is not going out of business, the consumer does not have to put an extra cost reaching the place and most importantly the economy can restart itself keeping in mind all the precautions that need to be taken. Humans as emotional beings tend to solve the problem on a first-hand basis without realizing its repercussions, we rather need to act as rational beings and do the most optimum activities to revive the whole disrupted economy sustainably. The old couple's incident is just another story.