A ‘look’ at the other side

Dulshani Gunawardena and Anuradha Abeysekera

We see ‘them’ daily, they shuffle, they stagger, they whine and they moan. Wherever in the city, ‘they’ are a hard sight to avoid.

Chances are you know ‘them’ as well as me! More often than not you are stabbed with a sharp pang of pity. Other times it’s a mixture of disgust and irritation…The mother carrying her baby, the ragged man showing off a huge wound, the old woman wobbling with a wide toothless sneer…And then the more bearable, the ‘viriddu’ singer, the vendor of many colourful goodies…

On May 1, the wheels will be set for a major change of their lives...

The Private Bus Association of Sri Lanka has declared a ban on ‘begging and selling’, taking effect from the first of May. Under this rule, begging and selling of every nature is prohibited within the premises of private buses.

This includes collecting money through singing ‘viriddu’, selling booklets, toys, sweets and any other goods, the collection of money for charity, the collection of money by selling bookmarks, stickers etc.

In reality, the ban on begging and selling in buses is nothing new. It is in fact, banned by the law, but only now is this ban has been imposed. Begging has been already been banned in trains, since the end of March.

Speaking to Daily News, Gemunu Wijeratne, Chairman, Private Bus Association, emphatically summed up the whole situation.

“Beggars and sellers are a menace both to passengers and drivers. We have received many complaints. They disrupt law and order. They are an unpleasant sight.

Many thefts have been reported. When not appeased, they resort to foul language. This is a well organized racket with our research showing that a beggar would earn as much as five thousand rupees daily. As for collecting money for charity and other such causes, there are genuine cases but the majority are scams. “

According to Wijeratne, the police will assist in implementing the ban, with the ability granted to arrest anyone begging or selling within private buses immediately.

The general reaction of the people mirrored Wijeratne’s say: “Good riddance of bad rubbish”!

Unlike trains, where begging has not been totally eliminated despite the ban, private buses promise speedy action with drivers and conductors more than willing to put the law in action.

Priyankara, a bus conductor says, “We couldn’t be more happier if the ban would really take place! Even now, we try our best to stop them entering, but this is hard as sometimes they enter as passengers. Once they enter, it’s not possible to pull them out. If we push them roughly, they complain to the police on us. But with the ban, and the co-operation of the police, this problem can be eliminated.”

Daily News decided to look in at another side of the story as well. The mobile vendors, soon to be in search of a new livelihood. Walking through the bustling depot in Pettah, we were met by a commotion. A large crowd was gathered around the police stand. We learnt from an onlooker that this was the whole-or a large portion-of Pettah’s ‘mobile vendors’. We were in luck!

“A bus driver’s purse was stolen yesterday. They had caught him and come over to hand him over to the police. They do not like such occurrences. If one steals, it’s bad for all of them.”

These mobile vendors are around one hundred and fifty in number. Wholly based in the Pettah bus depot, they are loosely organized as the Pettah Mobile Vendors Association. According to them, the number of mobile vendors in the country reaches one hundred thousand, with groups of 150 based in Kandy and Kurunegala.

Ariyaratne, a seller of children’s’ books, is the Vice President of the Vendors Association. A father of two, this is his thirtieth year on the go.

“We have a hard time earning our bread. We sell in buses as we have no other means of living. It is not that we like making our living this way.

We have children, and feel ashamed of us at times. But we have to feed them. What other option do we have? If we were given a job, we would accept it very gladly. But because we have no such choice, we live this way.”

Anil is a thin, waifish twenty three years old with a shy smile. Originally from Badulla, he has been a vendor in Pettah since the age of eleven. Asked whether he envisions a better life for himself, he answers, “What better life, miss? Yes, I’d like to go back to my village. Yes. I’d like to start a boutique of my own, but how? We do need some help.”

“We are no beggars. We earn our means of living. We are not a burden to anybody. Yet at times, we are considered on par with beggars”

Yet do they not agree with the main complaint of mobile vendors leading to increased crime, as witnessed in the previous incident?

“We try our best to maintain discipline. There was a time, before we were ousted from the World Market in Pettah, that we were very well organized.

Those days, a member guilty of an offence would be banned from selling for three months by the organization itself, even if not arrested. This helped in maintaining discipline. But after we were put out of the World Market, we have had not much time to reorganize and our numbers are extremely high.”

“Discipline should be maintained, and we have nothing against the police doing so. In previous days, each mobile vendor was issued an identification card from the provincial council. We would be happy if this would be put into action again.”

They are firm to the point that they are no beggars.

“We have done our part for the country. During the war days, each of us in the Mobile Vendors Association would daily perform one hour’s surveillance. Under the guise of selling, we would check the buses for parcels and suspicious persons. This was an easy task and helped greatly in intelligence. After the war we were even issued a certificate for our service by Gothabhaya Rajapakshe.”

Sumanapala from Maligawatte and in the trade for twenty five years has the final say.

“What we have to say is, very well, ban us mobile vendors. We won’t take any drastic action. We have no plans to take to the streets demonstrating.

All we ask is to be give us some other means of living, if you take away our livelihood. The money we earn barely covers our needs and now, even this income seems to be dragged away from us. We have families to feed. We can’t bear to see our children in hunger. We are forced then to resort to robbery and crime.”