Koparkhairane fisherwomen seek action against unlicensed hawkers hurting market sales

Local Agri-Koli women who have sold fish for generations at the Nakhwa fish market in Koparkhairane village now face a struggle to earn a living. They say unauthorised vendors who go around the village's internal roads and lanes selling fish have badly hit business at the market.

Customers now buy fish near their homes, so the number of people coming to the market has fallen. As a result, the women sit all day without making sales and are suffering financial losses.

The local women have therefore demanded that the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation take immediate action against the unauthorised roving fish sellers. The women have sat in the market morning and evening for many years and support their families with what they earn. In recent days, the number of vendors selling fish on the village's roads and lanes has grown. They reach customers' doorsteps directly, so customers are avoiding the market.

Every day before dawn, the women buy different kinds of fish with great effort and bring them to sell. But with fewer customers, the stock goes unsold. Fish that is left over spoils, and the women bear the loss. Costs have already risen and sales have fallen, making it increasingly hard to run their households.

The local women allege that many of the vendors selling fish on the roads do not have an authorised permit or licence. They want the corporation to check these vendors and stop unauthorised sales. The women also asked why the administration does not look at street sellers when those who trade in the authorised market must follow the rules.

Fish seller Mukta Balkrishna Patil said, "We have been sitting in this market and doing business with dignity for years, and our families' livelihood depends on it." According to her, the unauthorised fish sellers going from lane to lane have put their business in crisis, and it has become hard even to make the first sale of the day despite sitting in the market all day. She said the corporation should take immediate action against these vendors, or the women would have to launch an intense agitation. She issued this warning.

Sumitra Sanjay Patil, Kalpana Vijay Tandel, Fashubai Madhukar Patil, Asmita Suryakant Patil, Savitri Baliram Patil, Lata Bhagwan Patil and Nirmala Dattatray Mhatre, along with other women vendors, also voiced their hardship on the occasion. All eyes are now on what stand the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation takes, given that this is the local women's traditional trade.