HomeExchange visits: Korean and Indian street vendor organisations learn from each other
Kim Kyoung-lim, Propaganda Director Korean Street Vendors’ Confederation (KOSC)
A nine-member delegation from the Korean Street Vendors’ Confederation (KOSC) visited with the National Alliance of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India from 29 April to 3 May as part of a six-day exchange visit between StreetNet affiliates. Three of the delegates were from the KOSC head-office and the other 6 were members of KOSC branches.
The exchange visit provided an opportunity for KOSC and NASVI members to learn about the situation and the activities of street vendors' organisations in each other’s countries. As part of the preparation for the exchange, the KOSC team held three meetings to discuss the purpose of the visit for KOSC and NASVI as StreetNet affiliates, and to plan the activities.
During the visit in India, KOSC spent time with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad where we learnt about cooperative organisation, and SEWA’s various struggles to defend the rights of its members. We felt that the Indian Government was similar to the Korean Government in its negative attitude to street vending. However, SEWA's activities were different to that of KOSC. Most of KOSC's activities are directed to field struggles and protests against the repressive, unilateral crackdowns by gangsters employed by municipalities. SEWA's work for its members is much wider and covers, licenses, water/sanitary facilities, taking their protests through the courts to defend their member’s against eviction and exploitation, members’ leadership training and a bargaining system with a wide range of stakeholders. SEWA and NASVI are always looking at ways to introduce new means to assist and work for their members. We learnt that there are many lawyers, judges and government officials considering the human rights of informal workers, including the rights of street and market vendors and hawkers.
Following the KOSC exchange visit, delegates wrote a report on the work of SEWA and NASVI, and we have circulated it to the leaders and branches of KOSC so all members can benefit from what we have learnt during the visit about street vendor organisation in India.
Some of the problems we had during the visit, that we can learn from and avoid next time, were that we had only one interpreter, who had to translate Korean, Hindi and English at the same time. His efforts couldn't cover all the KOSC team's communication with members of SEWA and NASVI. Other difficulties such as food, culture and climate, we were able to overcome. There were also some misunderstandings. Both NASVI and KOSC, understood the budget differently, especially about who will pay for accommodation, meals, and translation and with what funds. It would have been better to begin with a mutual agreement on the budget and how the allocations would be made. Through discussion between NASVI and KOSC we were able to reconcile the budgets for the field visits.
The exchange visits between NASVI and KOSC were the first to be put to the test by StreetNet affiliates outside Southern Africa. KOSC found the visit a very useful learning experience and means of building solidarity and understanding between our organisations working in different situations in Asia.