Jeevika campaign office of Centre for Civil Society in Jaipur hosted a group of business and non-profit leaders from Leaders’ Quest (http://www.leadersquest.org/) to learn entrepreneurship capacity of people at the bottom. The group liked and appreciated campaign’s policy advocacy work for recognizing street vending as legitimate part of urban market distribution system.

The visit was organised by Leader’s Quest and hosted by Jeevika: Law, Liberty & Livelihood campaign of Centre for Civil Society at Jaipur. Eight global leaders of profit and non-profit sector from China, United Kingdom, United States of America and South Africa participated in the visit.

The objective of the visit was to understand:

1. The informal economy, providing livelihoods and employment for millions.
2. Entrepreneurial ability at the bottom.
3. Possible policy solutions for the livelihood barriers.
4. Policy change and implementation – the story of getting legislation passed in Rajasthan.
5. Personal perspective on the informal economy from street vendors in Jaipur markets.

The visit started at 11 in morning with a brief elaboration on Jeevika: Law, Liberty & Livelihood campaign work by Mr Amit Chandra, Jeevika National Coordinator wherein he explained in detail the what, why and how the campaign works. We also had three street vendor representatives during the presentation for interaction with LQ participants. The session was followed by questions and answers with street vendor leaders.

After having brief understanding of the issue and the campaign work, the LQ participants visited one street market to witness and understand the challenges. The participants liked to be in the field to see the innovative ways of people making business and understood the challenges.

After the visit the participants once again gathered to share/clarify their understanding and discuss possible solutions of the challenges observed. The visit finished after lunch discussion at 2.

Here is brief profile of participants:

Participants Profile

Here are some pictures of the visit:

Participants in Discussion with Amit Chandra

LQ Participants in Discussion

Participants during Field Visit

Participants Interacting with Street Vendors

Participants Interacting with Street Vendors

Amit Chandra Explaining Business of Street Vendors

Participants tasting Street Food

Participants during Discussion