The neo-liberal sanitization drive in Mumbai has now set its eyes upon the hapless street hawkers of the city, a profession that sustains the livelihoods of many women and small home-based industries. Ostensibly in a move to control the “menace” of the street hawkers to achieve “world-class” management of public places and roads in the city, the State Government and the Bombay Municipal Corporation plan to introduce Acts with the following provisions:
• Anyone who wants to do vending on the streets will have to register themselves. The complications and cost of the registration process can make it unfeasible for most of the hawkers to get themselves registered.
• Anyone who wants to do vending on the streets will have to register themselves. The complications and cost of the registration process can make it unfeasible for most of the hawkers to get themselves registered.
• The civic body would allow them to conduct business in a marked zone reserved for hawkers. The zone will be approved by the State government. Anyone who violates this rule will have to face six-month jail term, and/or a penalty of Rs 5,000. The demarcation without consultation with the hawkers and has severely adverse impact on their business.
• Any hawker who violates rules and regulations will be liable to pay a penalty of Rs 500 for each day of the violation. How will a vendor who earns about of Rs.70 a day, pay Rs.500?
· Vendors will not be allowed sell any goods other than what has been registered with a central body in the BMC. The vendors do not sell the same goods always. They have to be flexible to the slightest changes in the market. This flexibility will be killed by the provisions of these acts.
We contend that these bills are practically an eviction order for more than 2.5 lakh “illegal” street hawkers. It will only add to the scores of troubles that street hawkers face. Already not less than Rs.50 crores are extracted as bribes every month. The new bills have come only to add force to the extortionist racket of the civic officials and the police.
• Any hawker who violates rules and regulations will be liable to pay a penalty of Rs 500 for each day of the violation. How will a vendor who earns about of Rs.70 a day, pay Rs.500?
· Vendors will not be allowed sell any goods other than what has been registered with a central body in the BMC. The vendors do not sell the same goods always. They have to be flexible to the slightest changes in the market. This flexibility will be killed by the provisions of these acts.
We contend that these bills are practically an eviction order for more than 2.5 lakh “illegal” street hawkers. It will only add to the scores of troubles that street hawkers face. Already not less than Rs.50 crores are extracted as bribes every month. The new bills have come only to add force to the extortionist racket of the civic officials and the police.
The proposed acts are in serious violation of the National Policy of Urban Street Vendors of January, 2009. Where is the Town Vending Committee that is supposed to oversee the registration process for vendors? Where are the vending zones and vendors’ markets that the civic body has to demarcate? Where are the measures towards greater empowerment and formalization of the unions and welfare associations of the hawkers that the State government is supposed to take?
With none of these prerequisites in place, to only focus on registration of hawkers shows the blatant anti-poor attitude of the Government. The Bill in its draconian diktats reduces the entire National Policy to mere lip service and also violates the Supreme Court judgment that street hawkers have a right to dignity of livelihood.
Many unions and organizations are already struggling hard to fight these moves of the BMC, which in effect will flush out the largely migrant hawker population and stuff the pockets of the local police!
We appeal for solidarity with the struggle of the hawkers for preserving their livelihoods and greater democratic rights for workers in the informal sector.
- Vaibhav Raaj, Swathi Shivanand
Street Hawkers in Mumbai
ReplyDeleteSaturday, January 02, 2010
8:23 PM
Questions and Introspections :
• Is it true that the street hawkers in Mumbai have not been issued new licences since 1978 ?
• The role and responsibilities of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation towards street hawkers , as I'm likely to visit a Ward Office anytime soon and might take up the issue ( at the backdrop of the visit) .
• Reading the PIL of the Supreme Court Judgment in 1989 regarding an evicted street hawker and Delhi Municipal corporation would be good as both the constitutional and statutory rights can be understood w.r.t. the right to carry on 'any trade or profession' .
• What was 'pauti sysytem' introduced by the BMC between 1988-1997 . They stopped the practice after a petition filed by the then CFPPS TO THE Bombay High Court ? But still many hawkers feel resorting to the previous system was in their interest .
• The criterion which determines which area will be considered a 'hawking zone' and which area ' a non hawking zone' .
• The hawkers at crossroads : On one hand , Area Locality Managements (ALM) and resident associations oppose hawker presence as they find it a 'nuisance' suggesting a class divide ; on the other hand the haftas to the police and BMC Officials .
Pallavi