Bringing street vendors into mainstream

Street vendors are visible in every nook and corner of urban spaces and account for a substantial urban employment share. The ongoing health crisis has brought into focus their issues. The Government of India has tried to address their problems with a slew of measures and make their socio-economic situation better. An analysis of the present situation and scope for improvement

Street vendors are an integral part of cities, and they make urban life lively. Can one think of a bustling Chandni Chowk or Juhu Beach without street vendors? The answer is an obvious no. They add colours to urban life and make them safer, but their own life in almost every country and city remains dreary. They work in an uncertain environment. At times, they do not know whether they will be able to operate the next day at the place where they had been running their business for years. Their lives and earnings hang in the balance.

Street vendors are an integral part of our city systems. And, the Apex Court of India has also recognized this. From a consumer point of view, the Supreme Court of India noted that street vendors “considerably add to the comfort and convenience of the general public, by making available ordinary articles of everyday use for a comparatively lesser price”. They also help fellow citizens belonging to economically weaker section who cannot afford to use services available in formal markets. Informal food vendors in our big cities play an essential role in urban food security. This is especially true for developing and less developed countries. A report by the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN), for example, found that 70 per cent of 6,453 households surveyed across 11 sub-Saharan African cities sourced food from informal outlets, with 59 per cent of households reporting that they patronized informal food outlets once a week or more. Though there is no exclusive study available for Indian cities, it is apparent that street vendors cater to the food needs of the urban poor in Indian cities too. They do not just generate employment for themselves by selling products and services on the roadside at economical rates and make life easier for urban citizens but also contribute in developing demands for products and services for multiple businesses and entities. They are a valuable link for the supply chain. In India, according to a media report, street-vending accounts for 14 per cent of the total (non-agricultural) urban informal employment in the country. But the licensing cap on the street vending license is unrealistic and very low even in big cities. Hence, most of them become ‘unauthorized’ and ‘illegal’. Still, they live in fear of violent eviction, relocation, and harassment from different agencies. Many cities in some countries have introduced laws banning street vending. Many incidents have been reported in Angola, Jordan, Mali, Malawi, Nigeria, Zambia and the Philippines. In the African continent, purchasing from street vendors was made a criminal offence.
When street vendors’ role in city systems is so important, why they remain excluded in policies is intriguing. Many cities evict street vendors to make their cities modern, hygienic and ideal for attracting foreign investments, but city leaders have to think glass and concrete buildings only will not make their cities attractive. It is no denying that the existing street vending system needs overhauling and streamlining to make it orderly for integrating into future cities. Our city planners must learn from cities’ experiences and provide innovative solutions for street vendors in Master Plans. Still, in many cases, they lack creativity in addressing issues outside the realm of conventional planning.
However, India’s government has taken policy initiatives in the last couple of years to bring them into the mainstream and formalize its street vending ecosystem. The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act was introduced in 2014 to protect the street vendors’ rights operating in cities. The provision of having town vending committees in the Act has ensured the representation of street vendors and also provided them with a platform to raise their issues. The Act is being implemented in Indian cities for street vendors’ benefits, but many states’ progress is slow. In some states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Goa, the progress is reasonable, but some states need to pull up their socks.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs also announced a special scheme the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s Aatma Nirbhar Nidhi during the pandemic to help them financially.
In October this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, through video conferencing, distributed loans to nearly three lakh street vendors under the PM SVANidhi scheme. The scheme aimed to provide credit for working capital to street vendors affected due to the Covid-19 crisis. The scheme has a budget outlay of `5000 crore to benefit almost 50 lakh street vendors operating in Indian cities.