By organizing female vendors to fight exploitation and realize
their market potential, Sunita Bagal is creating employment and
entrepreneurial opportunities for India's poorest women working
in villages at places of worship, historical monuments, and
fairs. While traditional, these markets where women trade are
growing, offering potential to an enterprising entrepreneur. For
instance, in 2002 during the nine-day Tulja Bhawani festival in
Osmanabad, business worth Rs. 21 million was conducted. With
high turnover and profits, even large corporations have begun
sponsoring festivals that take place in the open village
grounds. Despite these good prospects, women vendors rarely can
capitalize on these market opportunities, making barely enough
to feed themselves and their families. Markets are male-
dominated, and even today male vendors actively prevent women
from joining. Also, because the women have neither licenses nor
registrations for their businesses, their roadside vending is
seen as encroachment by the civ