Covid-19 has turned costlier for Kathmandu street vendors than for anyone else

It has been eight years since Sarita Sharma has been selling clothes on the streets of the Naya Bus Park area of Kathmandu. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, her business was hit hard. Even if the number of infected people is decreasing, Sharma is still facing various challenges to revive her business.

Before the pandemic, her business was going smoothly. “I used to earn Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 a day before the Covid-19 pandemic,” she says, “But, I do not earn that much these days. Some days, I do not make a single sale.”