Designing new Street Vending Carts to cope with Covid challenges

Design should also consider issues and opportunities for street vendors so that they can sell better with improved efficiency and pride.

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in collaboration with National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, has organised a competition for Covid-19 Street Vending Cart Design for designing a new and cost effective cart models.

The NIDs students in Ahmedabad, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh took part in the competition from December 22, 2020 to February 5, 2021.

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National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad coordinated with other NIDs and conducted a Design Hackathon for designing new carts to cope with the recent challenges emerging due to the Covid-19. After selection, it is also proposed to offer these models in mass scale to street vendors.

The objective of the competition was to design a new and cost-effective solution for a modern vending cart to cope with the recent challenges emerging due to Covid-19. The cart should also provide better business prospects in the post pandemic world.

Design should also consider issues and opportunities for street vendors so that they can sell better with improved efficiency and pride. It should address the needs of all segments of society.

As a street vendor uses conventional vending carts but, in the post Covid-19 era, the requirements from a cart have evolved in terms of packaging of goods, display, billing, hygiene, foldability, compactness, mobility, accessories like dustbin, seat etc., provision for shade, lighting and power supply.

Indian street vendors are going through a tough phase due to the Covid-19 scenario. Loss of customers and demand, restriction of mobility, hygiene issues, and competitive challenges are dominant in the present time. Post Covid-19 times, there are new emerging scenarios in street vending.

There lies an opportunity for street vendors to innovate their businesses and attract customers adapting to these changes. These Street carts could become a turning point for product, storage, mobility and branding point of view, a commerce ministry statement said.