Centre plans to set up 500 street-vending hubs in cities over 5 yrs, studies Thailand, Singapore models

The govt is studying popular global street markets to draw plans for the scheme. Experts say street vendors must be part of planning process.

Representational image | A street vendor in Delhi | Flickr/Adam Cohn

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-led government is planning the launch of a new scheme to develop 500 street-vending hubs in cities in the next five years. ThePrint has learnt that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is looking at international models of vending markets, such as those in Thailand, Singapore and Latin American countries, among others for development of vending markets in Indian cities.

In her budget speech this year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the plan to develop “100 weekly markets or street food hubs” annually over the next five years in select cities.

According to senior ministry officials, the idea is to popularise the concept of vending markets, which will help street vendors scale up their businesses. A major issue faced by vendors today is the unavailability of space to run their businesses in cities and the threat of eviction, according to ministry officials and activists working for the welfare of street vendors.

While the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, mandates development of vending zones, very few municipal corporations have developed such areas or markets in cities in the past decade.

“The budget provision is a step towards supporting vendors to scale up their businesses. For this, dedicated markets are needed to provide them space. It is not possible to provide dedicated space to all vendors, but such markets—either daily or weekly—can be developed, where vendors can pay and set up stalls to sell their goods,” a senior official told ThePrint.

The ministry is currently analysing the work done in cities in Thailand, Singapore, Bogota (Colombia) and other Latin American cities, which have thriving street markets.

“We are studying the popular international street markets and how they are managed. We are looking at the rules and regulations in these cities for setting up and management of the markets. But while finalising the scheme, we will have to take into account the constraints, especially those linked to space, in our cities,” said a second official.

The details about the selection process of cities are being worked out. Another official said that the cities will have to provide basic facilities, such as access to clean drinking water, toilets, crèches, dedicated space for vending, and connectivity to transport modes, among others, at the markets.

Though very few Indian cities have developed vending zones, an official said, the vending markets in Ranchi (Jharkhand), Karwar (Karnataka) and Indore (Madhya Pradesh) are some examples which other cities can emulate.

“In cities, one of the major issues is lack of space. There is a need to have different models for vending, apart from dedicated space. There could be provision for using the same space for different activities, such as in Karwar, where the beach is used for sports activities during the day time and in the evening it transforms into a vending zone. Meanwhile Ranchi Municipal Corporation has a vending market, which has dedicated space for around 1,000 vendors,” said the official.

MoHUA is also exploring the possibility of ensuring space for women vendors as a sizeable chunk of street vendors are women. According to ministry officials, nearly 45 percent of the PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme beneficiaries are women. PM SVANidhi is a micro-credit facility for vendors and was launched in 2020 to help them restart their businesses, which had suffered due to the Covid pandemic.

‘Vendors must be part of planning process’

While the ministry is yet to finalise the details of the scheme, experts say that vendors should be made part of the planning process.

“Models from other countries, particularly the global north, may not suit India as our urban context is unique. Vending markets must develop organically—vendors won’t stay in zones without good footfall. When planning vending schemes, it’s crucial to involve vendors, as they have valuable insights into where sellers and buyers congregate. Vendors should not be removed from natural markets,” said Shalini Sinha, Asia strategic lead of urban policies programme at Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). WIEGO is a global network focused on empowering the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy to secure their livelihoods.

According to experts, in the past decade, very few markets have been developed in Indian cities despite the Street Vendors Act of 2014 mandating it. Arbind Singh, founder of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI)—a network of street vendors’ associations—said that the biggest problem is lack of proper planning.

Singh said that very little effort is made by the city administration to identify space for vending. In some cases, he said, spaces provided to vendors are far away from the main marketplaces. “Vendors have to be near the marketplaces, where the footfall is high. Providing them space in a building or a location, which is not close to the market or easily accessible, will defeat the purpose. The ministry should specify this in the scheme,” he said.

With a large number of cities preparing Geographic Information System-based master plans and planning greenfield projects, earmarking space for vending zones in the master plan should be mandatory, according to Singh. “A sizeable number of people are involved in street vending, and it is about time their requirements are addressed in the city’s plan,” he said.

(Edited by Mannat Chugh)