Adikasu and the Precarity of Women Vendors in Puducherry, India

Raveena Esther Ravichandran and Lalatendu Keshari Das

Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 2025, vol. 32, issue 1, 94-105

Abstract: Adikasu vendors are a distinct category of street vendors. Drawing on a qualitative study of women adikasu vendors in the Goubert Market area of Puducherry, this article explores questions pertaining to their identity, the nature of work and the meanings associated with their occupied sites. The authors show that the women adikasu vendors inhabit a liminal space between legality and illegality in a semi-formalised market structure. They are rendered illegitimate because they are not formally recognised by the municipal corporation, but they are simultaneously regulated because they are asked to pay a daily adikasu (or base fee) of ₹10 to the corporation for occupying a vending site in the market. The precarity of the women adikasu vendors is caused by the simultaneous certainty and uncertainty they face as they seek a living while maintaining the dignity of their work.

Keywords: Market; identity; women vendors; belonging; adikasu (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indgen:v:32:y:2025:i:1:p:94-105

DOI: 10.1177/09715215241301575

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