Page 105 - Abhivruddhi

in the public sector. It diverts the majority of individuals – about two-
thirds – to seek treatment in the costlier private sector,” the NITI Aayog
has said in its report on Health Insurance for India’s Missing Middle
released in October 2021[5]. Seeking private healthcare services during
such adversities lead to debts to meet medical expenses and if it is the
breadwinner who is sick the impact is multifold due to loss of income. For
equipping the unorganised sector to deal with medical emergencies, there
is a need for enabling low-cost health insurance products to protect them
from such adverse events that can be fatal to these businesses.
5. A case study – Developing Ecosystem of Small Businesses
Women fish vendors in Mumbai is a traditional business that continues
across generations and they have been in this business for nearly a
century. Historically the ecosystem of the Koli families involves division
of labour with men who catch fish and women fish vendors sell in retail,
in market places, wayside or door to door vending. Their growth has been
in certain pockets of Mumbai with the distance to market and distance to
buying fish are detrimental factors and this growth has been organic. It
grew because the government did not interfere and were allowed to grow
without setting the boundaries. Their economic momentum was driven
by the nature of this business and this led to their own informal market
level organisations and leadership which work towards addressing the
market issues. There is no standardised pricing of the selling price of the
fish and it is the women fish vendor who decide on the pricing based on
the value of the catch e.g if they get ghol fish, it is a prize catch and can be
sold with higher profit margins. The fish vending business is governed by
the customer’s perception of value, quality and price.
Impact of the pandemic
The pandemic created an imbalance in the ecosystem of the fisherfolk.
One of the lasting impacts of the pandemic is a drastic reduction of
customer footfall in the markets leading to decrease in the sale of fish
owing to the shift in purchase through e-commerce sites. Fish markets
have always been considered unclean which is even more exacerbated due
to Covid. New age urban buyers prefer buying fish from the supermarket
or through home delivery services. Small businesses by women are unable
to cope with these expectations. The shift of customers to e-commerce
sites benefitted the large players and the traditional fish vendors were
impacted. Increased competition from other players who entered this
business and offered additional services like doorstep delivery at lower
prices also led to losses. Fish vending is a business that can also lead to

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