Abstract
The informal sector dominates India’s economic life, so issues of skills development are particularly important. On the basis of a survey of 49 street food vendors in the Indian cities of New Delhi and Coimbatore, the authors of this article demonstrate that informal learning is a particularly significant form of vocational education and training. Vendors do not acquire skills in formal vocational education and training (VET) settings; for them, opportunities for learning on the job in family businesses or in informal employment are especially important. Unlike other studies, the authors’ findings show that street food vendors have a wide range of specialist knowledge, skills and expertise required to conduct their business which they deploy profitably. These skills are not confined to preparing and selling food but also extend to areas such as price setting and marketing. All the street food vendors interviewed identified strongly with their occupation and expressed pride in it. Around half voiced a wish for further training. In this context, the authors suggest promoting non-formal learning settings geared explicitly to street food vendors’ difficult working conditions. In line with a few other international innovative schemes, they term this a “non-formal apprenticeship” approach.
Résumé
Développement des compétences dans le secteur informel de l’Inde : le cas des vendeurs ambulants – Le secteur informel domine la vie économique indienne, le développement des compétences y est donc particulièrement important. À partir d’une enquête menée auprès de 49 vendeurs ambulants de produits alimentaires dans les villes de New Delhi et Coimbatore, les auteurs de cet article démontrent que l’apprentissage informel est une forme particulièrement efficace d’enseignement et de formation professionnels. Ces travailleurs ne sont pas formés dans les structures formelles de l’enseignement et de la formation professionnels (EFP), les opportunités d’apprendre sur le tas dans le commerce familial ou dans l’emploi informel sont donc pour eux décisifs. Contrairement à d’autres études, les auteurs constatent que les vendeurs ambulants en alimentation possèdent un large éventail de connaissances, compétences et savoirs spécialisés, nécessaires pour mener leur activité qu’ils exercent avec profit. Ces compétences ne se limitent pas à préparer et à vendre des produits alimentaires, mais touchent aussi des domaines tels que la fixation des prix et le marketing. Tous les vendeurs interrogés déclarent s’identifier fortement à leur travail et en être fiers. Environ la moitié ont exprimé le souhait d’une formation complémentaire. À ce sujet, les auteurs proposent de promouvoir des structures non formelles d’apprentissage adaptées explicitement aux conditions de travail difficiles des vendeurs ambulants. S’alignant sur quelques autres projets internationaux innovants, ils appellent cette approche « apprentissage professionnel non formel ».
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Notes
For a definition of “informal economy”, see ILO 2002, pp. 11–13.
The Indian Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act (GoI 2014) finally came into force in May 2014. The network of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), founded in 1998 and registered in 2003 under the Societies registration Act, had been lobbying for the protection of its members’ rights for many years. Unfortunately it still needs to be put into practice both in New Delhi and in Coimbatore.
For more details on earlier findings, see Krishna (2005).
Due to lack of space we can only select and describe some publications of high relevance for our topic from the vast number of research findings available in the field.
More detailed studies exist for other countries, including Bangladesh (Keck et al. 2012), Viet Nam (Hiemstra et al. 2006) and Taiwan (Sun et al. 2012). However, these studies are of very limited relevance to the Indian context because socio-economic conditions vary from country to country and also because some of the studies were based on different research questions.
The interventions of NGOs differ from location to location. Usually NGOs provide training either through formally approved Industrial Training Institute (ITI) courses or non-formal courses. Towards the end of the training programme, they contact employers located close to their premises to place the trained workers. The training they provide is based on the demand arising in the market. At the same time, training interventions of NGOs are restricted due to their limited capacity and the lack of proper certification, standardisation and the lack of updated curricula (NCEUS 2009a).
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Acknowledgement
This research project was partially supported by a grant within the Center for Modern Indian Studies “A New Passage to India” funding of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
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Pilz, M., Uma, G. & Venkatram, R. Skills development in the informal sector in India: The case of street food vendors. Int Rev Educ 61, 191–209 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-015-9485-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-015-9485-x