A 26-year-old vegetable vendor, Salma, who fights for the rights of the city’s street vendors and has been jailed many times, has been invited to an international conference in Brazil to speak about Indian domestic workers, labourers and hawkers.
Salma, whose full name is Anis Fatima Shaikh, started selling vegetables at the age of seven. The second of three sisters and two brothers, Salma had to drop out of school and help her parents sell vegetables. She, however, continued to study till Class 12 as a private student. After she was harassed by government officials, she decided to take up the cause of street vendors.
“I started to gather legal information about the rights of hawkers (street vendors) and labourers. I then helped other hawkers fight for their rights,” said Salma, a leader of the Azad Hawkers Union, a part of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (Nasvi).
“I have been imprisoned on a few occasions; when I read the names of freedom fighters on the walls of the jail, I got inspired to
fight for my cause,” she said.
Salma will be attending thr Global Network Conference in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro from May 21 to 24. “Sixty participants from 20 countries will be at the conference. It will bring together people from trade unions, labour and human rights activists from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Arab countries and Europe,” Salma said. She will be the lone Indian representative in the conference.