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Markets are a vital component of any economic ecosystem and it comprises a plethora of sellers one of whom is Street Vendors. A street vendor can be loosely defined as a seller of articles, goods, wares, food items or merchandise of everyday use to the general public without owning, renting or leasing a permanent shop. The government findings imply that street vendors comprise 14% of the total urban non-agricultural workforce most of which is densely concentrated in megacities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Ahemdabad. The informal nature and abundance of illegal hawkers subject them to exploitation by municipal authorities and the local police withal to their poor standard of living owing to their lack of wealth, earning sources, employability and minimal producer surplus.
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 was curated to address the issues of street vendors and safeguard their rights. The act supported the formation of Town Vending Committees in different districts so that its accessible for the government to identify the street vendors and map them to the vending zones as per the norms. However, the National Association of Street Vendors of India and the Standing Committee on Urban Development (2020-21) on Implementation of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 suggested that many states with the exceptions of a few districts in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra have completely and fundamentally failed to carry out vendor surveys, form Town Vending Committees (TVC) and notify vendors’ zone/market which is vital for the implementation of the Act.
The committee thus suggested that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) should reconsider the ceiling on the number of street vendors at 2.5% of the population of the city, town, zone or ward owing to the skewed density of street vendors in some Tier 1 cities. It also proposed that keeping the essence of the Act in mind, the evection of street vendors without the formation and consultation of TVCs shall be abolished. The report suggested that underlined that the TVCs may be located in vacant places near community centres and parks to improve the sales by street vendors. Another important insight of the report contemplated the lack of accessibility for street vendors to seek credit from formal sources, pressing them to exploitation by money lenders. Hence, it would be beneficial to form a legal framework to promote microfinance and financial literacy amongst the street vendors. Herein, PM Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (SVANidhi) become vital as they aim to empower street vendors to recover losses incurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the research suggests that it would be judicious to increase the scope and will of the scheme to finance the expansion of business for street vendors.
Thus, the researcher believes that it would be wise to not have a ceiling on the number of street vendors rather the civil and legislative bodies shall ensure in supporting and formulating a simple and accessible legal framework for their regulation which should aim to increase the standard of living of the street vendors in addition to the safeguarding of their rights. Another important determinant to improve the quality of life of street vendors could be by making the civic and polices bodies more empathetic about the lives and challenges faced by street vendors, it may be done via sensitisation of community programs and workshops. This shall also make the street vendors more law-respecting rather than law-fearing which would further enhance their accessibility to seek police and municipal help without hesitation in case the need arises.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.
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