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Mumbai is the latest to witness large-scale protests against the entry of multinationals and big Indian corporates into the retail sector. Thousands gather in the city to show their support for small shopkeepers, vegetable vendors and roadside hawkers
India witnessed its largest protest against the entry of organised retail, as a massive rally of 20,000 small shopkeepers, roadside hawkers, wholesalers, vegetable vendors, goods transporters and loaders and even retail chemists was held at Azad Maidan in the heart of the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, to fight the threat to their livelihoods. Small retail stores across the city downed their shutters on October 10 in an unprecedented show of unity, and many wholesale markets and trading centres, including APMC market, Mumbai’s main vegetable wholesale market, stayed closed. The protestors are demanding an immediate ban on the entry of multinationals and Indian corporate houses into the retail business as they pose a threat to more than 40 million neighbourhood grocery stores, small shopkeepers and vegetable vendors. The rally, the first protest in a major Indian city against foreign and large Indian businesses opening Western-style supermarkets in India, was organised under the National Movement for Retail Democracy, or NMRD, and the Vyapar Rozgar Suraksha Samiti, an umbrella organisation representing more than 750 trade associations in Maharashtra. Galvanised into action by a perceived threat to their livelihoods by the entry of big retailers -- who so far control only between 3-5% of the country’s retail trade -- the protestors, who had come from across Maharashtra and elsewhere in India, vented their anger against big retail chains. They cheered their leaders who claimed foreign retail stores would ruin their businesses, and shouted slogans and waved placards that read ‘Wal-Mart Quit India’ and ‘Save Small Retailers’. “We are against the government policy of permitting foreign direct investment in retail, and the entry of big Indian businesses in retail. Fifty million traders, big and small, will be affected,” Mohan Gurnani, president of the Federation of Associations of Maharashtra (FAM), one of the organisers of the rally, told reporters. Gurnani, also president of the Traders Association of Mumbai, added: “Small traders will be affected as big corporates and MNCs will make the smaller ones go out of business.” “It is sheer injustice as tens of thousands of small traders and farmers will be left without work. We are here at the rally to oppose such plans,” said a farmer who was at the rally. An organiser in the wholesale business said the entry of Wal-Mart and other big retail chains would devour small shopkeepers and hawkers. Ironically, promoters of organised retail like R Subramanian of the Subhiksha retail chain say that farmers will benefit and it is wholesalers or ‘middlemen’ who stand to lose if organised retail or supermarkets take off in a big way in India. According to FAM estimates, India has the largest density of retailers in the world with over 1.5 crore retail outlets spread across the country. In England, only 10 retail chains control 60% of the entire retail market, putting ‘mom and pop’ stores and small retailers out of business. According to Gurnani, the government has not learnt lessons from other countries affected by corporate retail. He said, in Thailand, multinational retail chains that entered in 1997 captured over 10% of the market share, impacting 60,000 small retailers. The Thai government had to step in and create a fund to give assistance to them and has since imposed zoning restrictions on mega retail stores. In China, Gurnani added, foreign direct investment in retail is highly regulated; many stores are allowed to stock only China-manufactured goods. The protestors have four main demands -- no foreign direct investment in the retail trade and an end to the Wal-Mart-Bharti joint venture, the scrapping of wholesale cash-and-carry licences, repealing the APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Cooperatives) Act and formulation of a national policy on retail trade, and the introduction of zoning regulations for large multi-brand retail stores. Traders say they will meet with all political parties and ask them to support the cause of the unorganised retail sector. Meanwhile, campaigners promise a national “agitation” against big retail business. Dharmendra Kumar, of India FDI Watch, which campaigns against changes in the retail sector, said: “Big supermarkets want monopolies. Small retailers cannot compete. They’ll simply get squeezed out... That is what happened in Britain.” The protest comes on the back of similar protests in Kerala, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal where traders have been protesting against the entry of big retail chains for the past few months. India’s retail market, currently valued at $ 330 billion, is estimated to expand more than 55% in the next four years. So it is no surprise that big retailers across the globe and players at home are anxious for a piece of the action. Indian law currently allows multi-brand retailers to run only cash-and-carry franchise businesses. The FDI restrictions have not deterred large US retailer Wal-Mart, which is planning a wholesale operation in the country despite opposition from left-wing groups. Wal-Mart agreed a $ 1.6 billion franchise deal with Bharti Enterprises a year ago for cash-and-carry and retail back-end operations. Tesco and Marks & Spencer of Britain, Carrefour of France and Metro in Germany have also expressed interest in opening stores in India but have suspended investment plans due to the uncertain conditions. Back home, however, even as the traders’ protest was on, Reliance Retail announced that it would go ahead with a plan to roll out garment stores across the country. And Mahindra & Mahindra, another major corporate house, confirmed that it was entering the organised retail sector. Source: www.ndtv.com, October 10, 2007
www.ibnlive.com, October 10, 2007
www.timesnowtv.com, October 10, 2007
www.bbcnews.com, October 10, 2007
IANS, October 10, 2007
www.guardian.co.uk, September 28, 2007
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