Your neighbourhood samosawala may be earning Rs 1 lakh a month, just like his counterparts in Delhi and Mumbai

The Black money declaration scheme by the government has yielded some hundred crores in terms of revenue. We have recently told you how the Income Tax department raid in Mumbai has revealed that some of the pav bhaji sellers have Rs 50 crore-worth of properties.
Eating street foods in India has earned the country multiple laurels in the global front in terms of quick bites. While samosa and pakora can be considered a staple diet during evening in many Indian households, you have often felt pity on the man who sells it. Most of the time we tend to believe that samosa sellers in India are poor. Not only so, you must have noticed that some good-at-hearts wouldn’t take back change of balance just to make the street food hawker earn a little extra. But do you know that many of them actually don’t like that and they feel insulted. The reason behind this is, as many as 45% of street food vendors (including samosa wala, jalebi wala around your neighbourhood) just don’t have a self-esteem but earn almost a lakh of rupees every month.

A Quora post detailing the income of the street food sellers would shock you, if you aren’t aware of the profits they make. A Quora user had met a Samosa wala in a local train in Mumbai’s Dadar station. Chitchatting for sometime, the person inquired about his income, if he is happy with the job. The samosa wala, who sells samosa in the office colonies of West Mumbai sells 4000 samosa a day. Each samosa earns him a profit of Re 1. Apart from that he sells vada pav, noodles pakora and some other fast food. Let me mind you, before the government’s scheme of wealth declaration, most of them wouldn’t have paid tax. Imagine this man was making Rs 80000- 1 lakh a month.

While this may sound like an isolated story, other Quora users have found that most reputed kebab sellers of Chandni Chowk in Delhi earn not less than Rs 10000 profit each day. Even forget about Chandni Chowk where most people love to dine, you must have come across the shikanji (lime water) sellers below the metro stations in Delhi and NCR. During peak summer, most of them earn Rs 1500- Rs2000 a day.
The most reputed breakfast in Delhi and UP, chhole batore would make you feel hungry at anytime of the day. If a Quora report is to be believed, many of them sell some 500 plates of chhole batore all through the day. They earn no less than Rs 1.5 lakh a month.

One such snacks seller in the College Street area of Kolkata earns Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.2 lakh a month just by selling chicken pakora, fish finger and cutlets. Talking to one of the pakora sellers, we found that earning profit in non veg items are easier than veg. That’s because most non vegetarian items expensive and there is no hard a fast rule about how much quantities of ingredients you need to add.

However, just because a half of the fast food vendors, do keep in mind that not all samosawala earn the same and they shouldn’t be ignored. Have a samosa every week, pay on time and let the economy flow.

(Image: India Times)