Visually impaired hawkers seek government help

They have urged the government to increase the financial assistance of Rs 1,000 a month now being given to visually impaired persons in the State.

“We sell chickpeas, groundnuts, keychains, and kerchief in the suburban trains, and are dependent on that income. After this lockdown, we don’t have any income. We earn only Rs 200 - Rs 250 a day, which is only enough for food and other expenses.

We are not able to save anything,” said P David, who has been selling these items on trains for about 25 years. If a person does not go for the work or fail to make any sale for a day, she/he would have to starve, they rued. “Usually, if we don’t work we don’t have a choice but to starve. The situation has only worsened in the last two weeks after the shutdown. After reaching out to a few people for help, they distributed rice, wheat and bread for us,” said Kaleeswaran G, another vendor.

The have now urged the government to increase the fund under the welfare scheme as the amount being given now is not sufficient to meet the living expense.

“Nowadays, all products have become expensive. Though the government is helping us with Rs 1,000 every month for past 10 years, they have not increased the amount. The authorities should take inflation into consideration and increase the amount,” said David.