roadside hawkers

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Precisely speaking, hawkers are those who offer goods for sale by going from house to house, street to street. "Peddler' can be an acceptable synonym for the term 'hawker'. Both in villages and towns hawkers are never something new. They move along the streets or roads shouting their wares, and their wares include all possible things of the world! Sometimes we even come across hawkers who move about repairing different things and tools, sharpening knives, scissors or sickles, mending locks and making quilts and cushions. Now usually people do not bear any grudge against these hawkers who are generally poor. Though haggling is almost a must with all purchases from them, these hawkers, after all, render useful service to the society. Often goods are cheap and we are also exempted from going to shops in person. But for over a few decades we come across a new phenomenon called 'roadside hawkers' , who are actually 'hawkers' just by name but, more truly speaking, stall-holders occupying pavements of different roads and streets. Hawkers' stalls here and there are not only ugly to look at but they create a lot of serious problems to us. Traffic movement is disrupted, accidents do also occur, pedestrains cannot also walk freely along the footpaths. So the Government has decided to evacuate the hawkers at least from the main streets and roads, and this action of the Government has raised much hue and cry. Actually there are both sides of the affair. As we must remember that the hawkers' usurpation of the pavements is illegal, we should not also forget the human factors involved with it. Most of these hawkers are poor and mostly the pathetic victims of severe unemployment, look-outs and lay-offs which the country has shamelessly failed to get rid of even after so many years of independence. So much discussion and negotiation must preceed the ultimate action. Prudent action and sympathetic broadness are also necessary. As strong humanitarian cause is involved with it the proper rehabilitation of the hawkers also must be seriously pondered over.