India may have been lagging behind or faring poor in Global Hunger Index, but the Telangana State is performing well in using technology enabled payment systems especially by the hawkers as most of them found opting for digital payment system on a regular basis while carrying out business.
This has been revealed in a survey report carried out by the Department of Municipal Administration recently wherein the mode of performing business by the hawkers like digital sales, loan transactions and their basic infrastructure has been thoroughly ascertained and recorded.
According to the report, a total number of 6,16,563 hawkers doing business on streets are registered with the Department and they account for 4.17 percent of the urban population. As part of its Urban Development initiative, the Department of Municipal Administration is providing a loan facility to the hawkers under Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA).
“Hawkers are receiving loans in two installments even under Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme introduced by the central government to help the petty traders overcome the whiplash of coronavirus lockdown. A total number of 3.45 hawkers in the state got Rs.504 crore as a loan under the scheme. Towns and villages of Telangana state are on the top in receiving the loans under the scheme. The first share loan amount of Rs.10,000 was distributed under GHMC area and the corporation stood second in receiving loan among all the mega cities in the country,” said the report.
These hawkers were found doing business by downloading digital payment applications like PhonePe, Google pay and Paytm for cash transactions without having much ado of keeping cash amount in the pocket all the time while carrying the business and the incontrovertible fact is that the number of such hawkers opting ease of doing business through digital payment mode are keep on increasing to many folds.
Most of the hawkers are of the view that digital payment mode has made them completely safe and trouble free as they can now conveniently perform the business on streets without cash transactions. Customers were found making transactions of lesser denomination like Rs.5 and Rs10 using the digital mode. The hawkers are even found leading in getting cash rewards using the digital payment mode.
According to a report, Rs.17.65 crore has been credited as cash rewards to the consumers throughout the country out of which the hawkers in Telangana have received Rs.3.63 crore. It is also reported that out of a total number of hawkers doing business on the streets using digital payment mode in the country, 21 percent of them are from Telangana state.
