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Cabinet nod to Bill for street vendors -Rakhi Chakrabarty
-The Times of India


The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a legislation to protect the livelihood ofstreet vendors and provide them more legal vending space in urban areas.

Once it becomes law, street vendors hoped it could shield them from unabated harassment and extortion by police and municipal officials.

Anxious to regain confidence of aam aadmi ahead of 2014 general elections, the housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA) ministry has fixed the norms for permissible street vendors or hawkers in any city, zone or ward at 2.5% of the respective population.

Once the new norms are applicable, Mumbai will have around 4.6 lakh legal vending space for hawkers, Delhi (4.07 lakh), Kolkata (3.5 lakh) and Chennai (2.17 lakh).

The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2013, which was reworked after recommendations of the standing committee, aims to take away arbitrary powers of civic authorities and police and vested the power to frame rules and regulate street vending in the hands of town vending committee, which would have majority of members from among street vendors.

Street vendors' groups were unhappy with several provisions in the Bill, including the one that said it will not apply to land owned or controlled by the railways.

HUPA minister Ajay Maken is pushing hard to introduce the bill in Parliament at the earliest.

"The revised Bill has empowered the town vending committee (TVC) to decide on almost all issues related to determining vending zones. The Bill also has strong grievance redressal mechanisms," said Arbind Singh, national coordinator of National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI).

Street vendors' representatives of NASVI from more than 15 states on Wednesday had gathered in Delhi to demand the Bill be passed swiftly. They cheered when they learnt about the Cabinet nod for the Bill.

A message to NASVI from Maken's office said, "Protecting and promoting livelihood of street vendors is of paramount importance for the inclusive growth of cities and towns. The government is committed to table the Bill in the current session of Parliament itself."

"We struggled a lot for this. We are happy the decks have been cleared," said NASVI programme manager Ranjit Abhigyan.

The Bill will enable street vendors to get registered and work with dignity. The Bill requires every street vendor to be registered with the town vending committee. Each registered street vendor will be given an identity card.

The local authority will also draw a street vending plan to be reframed every five years. The plan shall demarcate vending zones and no-vending zones. Such measures can protect street vendors from daily harassment by police and municipal officials, said Singh.

The bill will also help authorities to regulate activities of street vendors in public areas such as pavements and roads.

"If the Bill is passed, the police and municipal officials will not be able to throw us around," said Champa Ben, a street vendor from Ahmedabad. She has been selling fruits and vegetables on the pavement for the last 28 years. "Yet I have to pay Rs 50 per day as protection money to policemen. Even then, they keep throwing away my wares and harass me," she said.

Afreen sells garments on the pavement at Karnataka's Dharwad. "If this Bill is passed, then the police or officials can't evict us at will from the space where we sell our stuff like they do so often now," she said.

Vendors from Delhi complained that since protests erupted around India Gate after the December 16 gangrape, they have not been allowed to do business in the area after 4 pm.

NASVI president Manali Shah said the government should provide for recording of biometric measurements of street vendors so that only genuine ones are issued identity cards. "Often we have seen politicians manage licences for their people while genuine street vendors are denied," she said.

The Bill makes it mandatory to form town and zonal vending committee in every city. Such committees would include 40% elected representatives of vendor groups, 10% NGOs and rest comprising town planners, administrators, police and elected people's representatives.