CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature

Local. According to Golosino (2012), Vendors congregating to the

sidewalks were notoriously known as eyesores and obstructions. In the
words of Senator Santiago quoting Mayor Peñalosa she said “a good city is
one with great sidewalks”. In the Philippines, especially in the urban areas,
sidewalks lost its essence from the perspective of the pedestrian. It was
supposedly an access point for those who want to catch time and would
like to avoid traffic by means of walking. Instead, sidewalks were
transformed into a pseudo marketplace. As recourse, pedestrians resort to
walking on the road exposing them to greater risk and add to the
congestions of the street.

On the other hand, Aurora Almendral (2014) believed that in a city like
Manila, where even the cheapest fast food meals can feel like a splurge for
many office workers, informal stalls with minimal overhead and cheap
wares like one of the street vendors she know fill a need and help the city
run more efficiently. Yet as much as Manila may need its vendors, it often
doesn’t treat them well at all, imposing burdensome regulations and
limiting how they use the public space that is their marketplace. Through
years selling on streets and in alleys, the city’s community of vendors has
become savvy about how to navigate these spaces — and how to enliven
them.

Foreign. In a journal article written by Sharit K. Bhowmik, he stated that

street vendors are mainly those who are unsuccessful or unable to get
regular jobs. However, this section of the urban poor tries to solve their
problems through their own meagre resources. Unlike other sections of the
urban population they do not demand that government create jobs for
them, or engage in begging, stealing or extortion. They try to live their life
with dignity and self-respect through hard work.

In addition to that, street vendors have no access to formal finance, and

they largely rely on their own savings, and finances from friends and
relatives. Majority of the street vendors are not organized into groups, they
are unable to pool their resources through revolving saving. Street vendors
in Bihar have not accessed the formal Micro Financial Institutions (MFIs)
that have come on board to fill the gap left by formal financial institutions.
Since most MFIs use groups as collateral, effective organization can
provide collateral required by financial institutions. It also provides a good
forum for extending business development services to street vendors. The
same approach can be used in ensuring security in the areas of operation.
Moreover, organization of street vendors is pre-requisite for their success
as well as healthy development of the cities.

Harlan Dimas (2008) concluded that the informal sector, of which street
vending is just one component, is a vessel that accommodates labor
unemployable in the urban formal sector. As such it is not as much a
problem as a solution. People need to revise their perception of the
informal sector in general. Street vendors have a negative image in the
view of congested urban road users and pedestrians crowded out from the
sidewalks/pavements. As such people generally support local government
efforts to sweep them off the streets. However repressive municipal policy
toward street vendors (PKL), with the deployment of the Admin Police
(Satpol PP), have been shown to be counterproductive. PKL exist because
there is a market niche for them. They serve an economic purpose. As
such they are productive. They are an urban asset. They deserve support,
not only because they are part of the poor and the weak .

RELATED STUDIES