Road Warriors of Covid 19

The frontline vendors who supply households

Road Warriors of Covid 19

While many of us have been safely quarantined at home, there has been a surge in the large number of people who have selflessly traveled long distances to ensure that we are supplied and fed.

Many vendors have been collecting fruits and vegetables from wholesale markets, transporting it over many kilometers on their bikes and then going door to door in our localities, selling it from street carts. Their daily endurance has given us the luxury of having fresh produce delivered to our doorsteps.

Lights by Suri Vasireddy

Rajesh travels from Miyapur to the wholesale market at SR Nagar to stock up on vegetables every day. He is accompanied by his mother on his bike and they sell the vegetables from a roadside cart.

Mohammed deals in only 2 items - ginger and garlic, both of which are essential in Indian cooking. He collects them from the wholesale market and sells them from a pushcart in his locality.

Mallesh travels 16 kms every day on his bike to pick up an assortment of vegetables, fruits and flowers. He drives around his neighborhood with this load, dropping off the preordered supplies in packets to regular customers.

For Ravi Babu, selling vegetables from his cart is a normal activity that he does all through the year. The lockdown has made him busier and his wife joins to help transport the larger load from the wholesale market to his locality.

Tej sets up a stall selling packets of pani puri and it keeps him busy all morning until he sells out.

Ellaiah and his wife prepare fried savoury snacks during the evenings, and he sets off early every morning with this seemingly gravity defying basket on his bike to drop off them at various stores over a route of 25kms.

Shankar with a load of vegetables that he has purchased at the Bowenpally wholesale market. He will take this to his vegetable cart at Balanagar and distribute it to individual residences.

For Krishna, selling fruits is a new profession. The lockdown situation had forced him to adapt in order to earn a living. He used to work in a small shop but they closed for the lockdown and its been a couple of months since he was paid.