Co relation of formal and Informal Activities | Urban Design
Studying the co-relation of formal and informal activities is very important. Abids as mentioned earlier in one of the oldest commercial neighbourhood of the city of Hyderabad. It has established formal and informal activities. They relate to each other and surprisingly there are different types of informal sellers that we call hawkers.
Types of Commodities
- Books
- Belts
- Clothes
- Cellphone Accessories such as Mobile covers, headphones etc.
- Goggles
- Watches
- Eateries
Relationship between formal and informal shopping areas
The informal shopping areas evolved because of the influence of the existing formal shops.
Factors that influence the existence of the informal shops:
- Type of formal shops
- Crowd (people)
Types of formal shops
Some percentage of informal shops evolved because of a strong influence of the type of formal sector. The informal shopping development generally include the accessories of the major commodity sold in the formal shops/showrooms.
For example:
Hawkers around Hollywood
Hollywood is a footwear showroom. All the accessories related to footwear are available in the informal shopping area adjacent to Hollywood. Also, the accessories such as watched, goggles etc have been seen to exist around.
The informal sector around Hollywood is very popular.
Parking facility
The area between Hollywood ad Kamal Watch is their setback area.
Two wheeler paid parking is prevalent here. The funds collected by paid parking are distributed between the two showrooms Hollywood and Kamal Watch respectively.
Emphasis of Crowd on the informal Activities
The informal activity gets a boost in their business because of the following two reasons:
- Kind of Crowd
- Volume of Crowd
Kind of Crowd
People who prefer shopping on streets from the informal shop owners are in encouraging number.
Volume of Crowd
Wherever there is a huge of volume of crowd, the informal activities are larger in number.
Economic Status of the Hawkers
Types of Hawkers
As per our casestudy, the types of Hawkers can be classified into three major categories:
- Senior Hawkers
- Rental Hawkers
- Hawkers permitted by formal shops
Senior Hawkers and their economic status
These hawkers have existed at a particular place for a minimum of 35 years. Some of these senior hawkers have been there even before the major formal showrooms came up. The formal shop owners cannot shoo them off from their place.
Rental Hawkers
Rental Hawkers are dependent on Senior Hawkers. If any newer hawker wants to establish his informal activity at a particular place where senior hawker once sold his goods; they have to pay rentals to the Senior for carrying out their sales activity.
For example
The hawker selling belts on the footpath paid 10,000/- to the senior hawker to carry out his sales activity.
The rental network does not stop here.
Rentals paid by the Hawkers:
Economically stable Hawkers
Turnover |
Senior |
MCH |
Police |
Buying New Materials |
Income split into two partners |
| 90,000/- | 10,000/- | 5000/- | 5000/- | 20,000/- | 25000 each |
Economically Backward Hawkers
Turnover |
Senior |
MCH |
Police |
Buying New Materials |
Income |
| 20,000/- | 5,000/- | 300/- | 5000/- or commodities | 3,000/- | 6700 |
The amount collected by police depends on the income of the Hawker.
Hawkers permitted by Formal Shop owners
Formal shop owners use these hawkers to their advantage.
When shop owners keep their shops shut for a long time because of a certain reason, they permit these hawkers to practice their hawking activity until they open their shops again. They do this for two reasons:
Security Purpose
Prevention from dirtying of the surrounding area of the shop.
Sunday Bazaar
Evolution of Market – 35 years ago
Type of Market – Informal type of Market laid on footpaths and roads.
Commodities sold : Books and Clothes
Timing : 10am to 6pm
Peak Shopping hours : 4pm to 6pm
History of Sunday Bazaar
The informal activity in Koti has given a boost to the development of weekly informal activity which is today known as Sunday Bazaar.
Initially, market for books was a trend only in Koti which later spread to Abids.
Informal market for clothes gradually developed.
Identity of Hawkers
Basically Sunday Bazaar Hawkers are people who work in either private shops or municipal offices on week days.
To make extra money on weekends, they sell clothes or books in Sunday Bazaar.They follow a system of “FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS”.
Economic Status
They are employees from private shops or government offices.
On an average, they make 2000/- on Sunday.
Relation between Formal and Informal Activity
Sunday Bazaar influenced some of the formal shop owners to keep their shops open on Sundays. But the existence of Sunday Bazaar is not influenced by the formal Sector.