Penetrating the Retail Sector in Bengal - the Reliance Juggernaut

Z-Net Article by Partho Sarathi Ray.  August 21, 2007

After agriculture, the retail sector employs the largest number of people in India. Of the 40 million people involved in retailing as an economic activity, 0.5 million are in organized retail whereas around 39.5 million people are employed in unorganized retail trade. This includes all sorts of small retailing operations ranging from neighbourhood "mom-and-pop" shops to street vendors to small farmers who travel to cities daily to sell their produce to the small-scale transporters who transport the retail goods. These 40 million adults in the retail sector roughly translates into 160 million dependents, making the retail sector the source of livelihood for approximately a sixth of India's population. The decade of liberalization, which has seen stagnation in the agrarian economy and large scale job losses in the manufacturing sector, has pushed more and more people into different aspects of retailing in absence of any other opportunities.

Leading the charge among Indian corporations in retail is the Reliance Industries limited, which has opened a chain of retail stores called "Reliance Fresh" in most of the major cities in India.

As Reliance Fresh outlets started operating in a number of major cities, small-scale vegetable and fruit sellers started reporting reductions in sales by as much as 40% within a few days. Protests erupted in May in a number of cities such as Ranchi, Patna, Indore, Jaipur and Delhi. Protesters, mostly comprising of vegetable vendors and fruit sellers, picketed Reliance Fresh outlets or went on hunger strikes. The protests had turned violent in Ranchi and Indore, and the protesters were beaten up by the police. In Chennai (Madras), there was a protest march on May Day that proceeded from the wholesale Koyambedu market, which is suffering huge losses due to the opening of Reliance Fresh, to the Reliance Fresh shop, where the protestors were arrested. These protests by small retailers, to protect their livelihood and to prevent their being pushed into extinction, are spreading and need to be supported and organized into the general struggle against neo-liberal economic policies unfolding in India.

In West Bengal, ruled by the Left Front, led by the so-called Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), which is a darling of capitalists in India and abroad because of its abject surrender to all their demands, the situation is developing along a different trajectory.

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