Gaurav R

Keerthana B R

STREET VENDORS IN INDIA

ABSTRACT
Street vendors form a very important segment of informal sector. Street vendors offer goods
and services for sale without having a permanent built up structure to satisfy the demands of
urban poor’s and urban youth. They ensure the distribution of benefits in favour of the
disadvantaged group. The objective of this paper is to identify the causes behind street
vending, challenges faced by street vendors, highlight the importance of street vendors, what
measures are taken by the Government to prevent the harassment of street vendors by police
and other authorities, improvement in the working conditions, social protection and life skill
development to improve the level of profitability. Key words: Informal Sector, Street
Vending, Town vending Committee (TVC), Street Vendor Bill

INTRODUCTION
A Street Vendor is a person who offers goods or services for sale to the public without having
a permanently built structure but with a temporary static structure or mobile stall (or head -
load). Street vendors could be stationary and occupy space on the pavements or other
public/private areas, or could be mobile, move from place to place carrying their wares on
push carts or in cycles or baskets on their heads or could sell their wares in moving buses.
The government of India has used the term “urban vendors” as inclusive of both traders and
service providers, stationary as well as mobile and incorporates all other local/region specific
term used to describe them, such as hawkers, pheriwala, rehri –patriwala, footpath dukandars,
side walk traders and more. (National Policy on Urban Street Vendors ,2004.Department of
Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation , MUPA,GOI)

ROLE OF STREET VENDORS IN INDIA

Street vendors play very important role in India by generating employment and income
opportunities. They sell different kinds of goods like clothes and hosiery, leather, moulded
plastic goods and different kinds of goods necessary for household, which are manufactured
insmall scale or home based industries where large numbers of workers are employed
(Bhowmika, 2001). The manufactures could have hardly marketed their products. Apart from
non-agricultural product, street vendors also sell fruits and vegetables. Street vendors provide
the market for home based manufacturing product as well as agricultural products. In this
way, street vendors help generate employment in the home based and small scale industries
and traditional sector. Therefore we can say that several manufacturers are linked with street
vendors to sell their product. Urban youth prefers to purchase clothes and accessories from
them because products sold by them are cheaper than those found in formal retail outlets.
Street vendors provide benefits to Lower income group people who spend a higher portion of
their income on purchase from street vendors because their goods are cheap and affordable.
TEN MAJOR ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF STREET
VENDING
1. Street vending contributes directly to overall level of economic activity and to the
provisions of goods and services.
2. Citizens have constitutional right to choose their occupation and to engage in
entrepreneurial activities.
3. Street vending is an actual or potential source of government tax revenues.
4. Street vending serves as a social safety-net.
5. Street vending is a laboratory for entrepreneurship, family business and social interactions.
6. Street vending provides entrepreneurial opportunities to people who cannot afford to buy
or rent fixed premises.
7. Street vending greatly expand the range of places and times where goods and services can
be provided, and sometimes they also offers goods and services which are not available in
off-street locations.
8. Street vending brings life to dull street.
9. Because of its low capital requirements and its potential mobility, street vending is a very
effective way to cater for seasonal, sporadic and special demands.
10. Street vending offers its workers considerable flexibility in working hours and levels of
activity.

OBJECTIVES
 To identify the role of street vendors in the developing countries.
 To identify the causes behind street vending.
 To know about the challenges being faced by street vendors.
 To know different policies and bills passed by the government to protect the rights and
interest of street vendors.
 To know the ways to improve the conditions of street vendors.

CAUSES BEHIND STREET VENDING

1. Effect of an increasing population growth in the era of globalization was compounded by a
rapidly accelerating migration from rural areas to urban areas. This accelerated pace of
urbanization led to employment problems both a quantitative and qualitative nature.
Insufficient capacity of the modern economic sector to provide employment for the rapidly
expanding labour force ,as a consequences of which a large number of person who are
looking for work, are forced to find or create other income opportunities.
2. The fall in self-employment and stagnation or even relative decline indicate the great and
growing significance or huge dependency in the informal sector employment.
3. In the most Indian cities the urban poor survive by working in the informal sector primarily
due to poverty, but also due to a variety of factors such as lake of gainful employment in the
rural areas, shrinkage of employment in the formal sector, and low levels of skills and
education required for the better paid jobs in the formal sectors.
4. The formal sector offers higher salary than the traditional rural employment. The cities
become magnets that attract rural labours. Unfortunately most of the agricultural workers do
not possess the skills demanded by modern occupations. Hence they are not employable in
the formal sector. To survive they have no resources except creating employment using their
only assets, themselves.
5. Another cause of street vending is surplus labours in rural agriculture sector. Land does not
expand, while population keeps on growing. Thus over time there is insufficient agricultural
land to accommodate all of the rural labours. Also, progress in technology can manage the
land efficiently and produce even more. So, more and more rural labour is crowded out of the
agriculture sector. They have no place to go but to the cities, hoping to improve their lots.
Cities become overcrowded, no employment opportunities are available for surplus labours,
hence they start vending on sidewalks, roads and weekly markets, etc to earn minimum wage
for their family.
6. Globalization is a cause of street vending. Facing tough import competition, domestic
firms cut costs by any mean they can. The easiest way is by outsourcing, contracting some of
the work to informal sector (ILO, 2005). The informal sector operates with cheaper labour
due to non-existent labour protection in terms of no legal contract, no minimum wages, no
health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no work safety standard etc.
7. One more reason for inflating number of street vendors in developing countries is
unending economic and political crisis. These crisis causes increasing rate of unemployment,
poverty etc.

CHALLENGES FACED BY STREET VENDORS

1. Street Vendors faces many problems as they are vulnerable population, who are neither
protected by government, NGOs, labour union nor by any labour law. They are deprived by
laws made by government in respect of labour union.
2. The street vendors always suffer competition with other street vendors because of
fluctuation in market prices, insecure and irregular employment. Their incomes are often
minimal and their sales fluctuate. Another reason for decrease in income of street vendors is
that they are forced to pay 15 to 20 percent of their daily income as bribes to local police.
3. Street vendors is usually associated with encroachment of public spaces, causes traffic
congestion, inadequate hygiene, and poor waste disposal. Safety of food has been
increasingly become a concern in regard to street vendors. No Government agency is
authorized to verify the content of food as they are not regulated by any government agency.
4. The government does not recognize the contribution of street hawkers towards economic
and social well-being of urban population. They survive without government support. But
lately, government has passed “Street Vendors Bill 2013‟‟, which protects the rights of street
vendors.
5. Negative impact of online shopping on retailers and street vendors- Online shopping is a
form of electronic commerce whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller
over the internet without an intermediary service. Online shopping has become the trend and
the new mode of purchasing. There are around 1000s of online marketing enterprises selling
cosmetics, clothes, shoes, accessories, vitamin supplements, etc. literally the entire range of
consumer items. The trend is very clear, retail shop demand will fall and even shrunk. Online
shopping is indeed having an adverse impact on the retail sector.
6. Uncertainty and insecurity: The basic problems of street vendors is insecurity and
uncertainty as their profession is considered illegal, but according to government of India
assessment done in 2004 shows around 2.5% of local poor urban population survive by
working in this occupation. If government provide license to street vendors, they can be
protected by harassment and eviction by local authorities and local police.
7. Walmart v/s street vending: Walmart is an American Multinational Retail Corporation that
runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the
world‟s second largest public corporation, according to the fortune global 500 test in 2013,
the biggest private employer in the world with two million employees and is the largest
retailer in the world. Walmart ensures that they do work in the consumer and farmers interest.
They eliminate middlemen and guarantee fair prices. It means walmart runs counter to the
street vending and they may not have beneficial impacts on the street vendors.
8. Lack of financial resources: Access of capital is an important economic linkage that ties
street trade to the economy which affects the vendor‟s economic activities, profits and
potential business growth .Capital is needed for initiating the business and later, for running
and expanding the business through buying new merchandise. Seven sources of capital have
been identified which are personal savings, family, money lenders, banks and co-operatives,
organization, local retails and whole sellers etc. Street vendors have only above two sources
for their business activities.

UPLIFTMENT/COMEBACK OF STREET VENDORS

1. Commercial banks have been empirically proven to be unable to support the informal
sector resulting in micro-financing. Grameen Bank is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning
microfinance organization and community development bank founded in Bangladesh by
Professor Muhammad Yunus. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or “grameen
credit”) to the impoverished without requiring collateral. Micro-credit loans are based on the
concept that the poor have skills that are under-utilized and with incentive, they can earn
more money.
2. Management plays an important role in success of any activity. There should be proper
management in street vending also. There are good examples of street vending management
in several cities in Indonesia. In these cities, the street vendors provided standardized carts.
The size of their lots was also standardized. These create uniformity and order. The carts were
then wheeled in and out at certain time. Roads were closed and reopened at certain times.
During off operating period carts were neatly stored somewhere unobtrusive, thus the cities
stay clean and the roads uncongested. Proper management working environment provide
income, health and safety benefits to street vendors.
3. Provide safety at work place: Street vendors are not trying only to earn a livelihood but
also provide valuable service to urban population. Thus, it is the duty of the state government
to protect the right of these segments of population to earn their livelihood since article 39(a)
of constitution stated that “any citizen, men and women, have equal right to an adequate
means of livelihood”.
4. Creation of member based unions: These unions are mainly association of active hawkers.
Since the street vendors have no legal permission to survive, the main role of these
committees(unions) is to negotiate with local authorities such as Municipal Corporation, local
police stations for occupying public space to sustain their activities. These unions also help to
set up welfare goals and labour commission for their social security and cooperatives for their
access to credit for their economic activities.
LEGAL ASPECTS
1. National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2009
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POLICY
1. This policy recognizes the positive role of street vendors in providing essential
commodities to people at affordable prices and at convenient places. It also recognizes the
need for regulation of street vending by way of designated „Restriction-free Vending‟,
'Restricted Vending' and „No Vending‟ zones based on certain objective principles.
2. This Policy also aims to reflect the spirit of the Constitution of India on the right of citizens
to equal protection before the law (subject to reasonable restriction) as well as their right to
practice any profession, occupation, trade or business; and the duty of the State to strive to
minimize the inequalities in income, and to adopt policies aimed at securing that the citizens
have the right to adequate means of livelihood as enshrined in Article 14, 19(1)(g), 38(2),
39(a), 39(b) and 41 of the Constitution.
3. This Policy recognizes that to be able to practice any profession or to carry on any
occupation, trade or business is a fundamental right of every citizen in our country. A person
who wants to buy some items in wholesale and sell the same in retail by hawking is actually
exercising such a right.
4. This Policy recognizes that street vendors constitute an integral and legitimate part of the
urban retail trade and distribution system for daily necessities of the general public.
5. A centre piece of this Policy is the role of Town Vending Committee (TVC) to be
constituted at City/Town level. A TVC shall be coordinated by a convener who should be
nominated by the urban local body concerned. The Chairman of TVC will be the
Commissioner/ Chief Executive Officer of the concerned urban local body. The TVC will
adopt a participatory approach and supervise the entire process of planning, organization and
regulation of street vending activities, thereby facilitating the implementation of this Policy.
6. This Policy adopts the considered opinion that there should not be any cutoff date or limit
imposed on the number of vendors who should be permitted to vend in any city/town, subject
to registration of such vendors and regulation through the TVC.
7. The objective of this policy is to provide for and promote a supportive environment for the
vast mass of urban street vendors to carry out their vocation while at the same time ensuring
that their vending activities do not lead to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in public
spaces and streets. There are some specific objectives of this policy which give legal status to
street vendors, provide civic facilities and to promote access of street vendors to such
services as credit skill development, housing, social security and capacity of building etc.

2. The street vendors (Protection of Livelihood and

Regulation of street vending) Bill, 2012
Highlights of the Bill
1. The Bill aims to protect the livelihood rights of street vendors as well as regulate street
vending through demarcation of vending zones, conditions for and restrictions on street
vending.
2. Any person intending to undertake street vending needs to register with the Town Vending
Committee (TVC). He may then apply for a vending certificate that will be issued based on
various criteria.
3. The state government shall frame a scheme for street vendors. The local authority shall, in
consultation with the planning authority, frame a street vending plan once every five years.
4. The TVC comprises of the municipal commissioner, representatives of street vendors, local
authority, planning authority, local police, resident welfare association and other traders
associations.
5. This Bill shall not apply to Railways land, premises and trains.

KEY ISSUES AND ANALYSIS

1. The Bill does not specify principles to be followed by governments in issuing vending
certificates, allocating vending zones and the number of vendors per zone. Absence of such
norms could defeat the purpose of enacting a law to ensure uniformity in the legal
framework.
2. The Bill does not require the stakeholders to be consulted in the formulation of the street
vending plan. This could lead to a lack of safeguards in ensuring that the plan is determined
in a fair manner.
3. The central law will have an overriding effect on state laws that are inconsistent with the
Bill. Current state laws differ with the Bill in terms of powers of the TVC, and mechanism for
dispute resolution.
4. The Standing Committee suggests making the Bill applicable to the Railways,
incorporating specific provisions of the scheme in the Bill, and consultation with the TVC on
the vending plan.

3. Street Vendors Bill, 2013

The Upper house of the Indian Parliament passed the street vendors (protection of livelihood
and regulation of street vending) Bill, 2013.The bill aims at creating a conducive atmosphere
where street vendors are able to carry out their business in a fair and transparent manner,
without the fear of harassment and eviction. Some features of street vendor Bill 2013 are as
follows:
1. The bill provides for constitution of a Town Vending Authority in each local authority,
which is the fulcrum of the bill, for implementing the provision of the bill.
2. In order to ensure participatory decision making for aspects relating to street vending
activities. It has been provided that 40% members of the Town Vending Committee will be
from amongst street vendors to be selected thought election, of which one-third shall be
women.
3. It has been provided that no street vendor will be evicted until the survey has been
completed and certificate of vending issued to the street vendors.
4. The mechanism is to provide universal coverage, by protecting the street vendors from
harassments and promoting their livelihood.
5. Relocation of street vendors should be exercised as last resort. It means re-allocation
should be avoided as far as possible unless there is clear and urgent need for land in question.
6. The bill also provides for promotional measures to be undertaken by the government
towards availability of credit, insurance and other welfare schemes of social security, capacity
building programs, research, education, training programs etc. for the street vendors.
7. The bill specially provides that the rules under the bill have to be notified within one year
of its commencement, and schemes have to be notified within six months of its
commencement to present delay in implementation.

CONTRIBUTION OF STREET VENDORS

Street vendors contribute to the well-being of urban population by providing inexpensive
goods to the urban poor and generating employment for a large number of people especially,
women. A World Bank Report 2002, based on data from all countries available, showed that
informal traders mainly “street vendors” make up 73- 99% of employment in trade and 50-
90% of trade gross domestic product. This shows a considerable contribution of street
vending to the overall economy in strategic location that is convenient for customers. Street
vendors have an important role in the informal economy by making a significance
contribution. Globally over 25% of workers operate in the informal sector, and in India
almost 80% of workforces are engaged inthis informal sector. The increasing urban
population with limited income to meet the needs of housing, food and clothing of
themselves and their families generates a significant demand for a variety of products and
services which can be supplied by informal sector vendors. The street and pavement vendors
form a substantial proportion of the informal sector which earns their livelihood through
vending. They have flexible vending hours ensuring the economic viability and dynamism of
the city. It also creates employment thereby alleviating the hardships of employment.
According to Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, there are over one
crore vendors in India contributing to over 50% of country‟s savings and 63% of the GDP
come from vendors.

CONCLUSION
Street vendors are very important part of the informal sector in the country. It is estimated
that around 80 percent of the population are engaged in street vending profession. Women
form a large segment of street vending in almost every city. Street vending is not only a
source of self employment to the poor in cities and towns but also a means to provide
„affordable‟ as well as „convenient‟ services to a majority of the urban population. Street
vendors are often those who are unable to get regular jobs in the remunerative formal sector
on account of their low level of education and skills. They try to solve their livelihoods
problems through their own meager financial resource. They are the main distribution
channel for a large variety of products of daily consumption like fruits, vegetables,
readymade garments, shoes, household gadgets, toys, stationery, newspapers, and magazines
and so on. If they were to be eliminated from the urban markets, it would lead to a severe
crisis for fruit and vegetable farmers, as well as small scale industries which cannot afford to
retail their products through expensive distribution networks in the formal sector. The
importance of this sector cannot be undermined, especially considering that the government
does not have the capacity to provide jobs to the millions of unemployed and underemployed
people in India. Even the corporate sector is able to absorb only a tiny proportion of our
expanding work force. Overall employment in the formal sector is actually declining. This
means most people in India have to fend for themselves. People in the informal sector ought
to be encouraged to grow and prosper if the governments want to reduce unemployment and
poverty in our country. They contribute significant role in local economic growth and
development of the urban economies. Public authorities considered street vendors as a
nuisance and as encroachers of sidewalks and pavements and do not appreciate the valuable
services that street vendors provide to the general population of the world. Street vendors
provide valuable services to the urban masses while making out a living through their own
enterprise, limited resources and labour. Street vendors have been demanding protection from
civic agencies and the state government so they can earn their livelihood without fear.
RecentlyDelhi chief minister has assured vendors the government will write to municipal
corporations not to evict vendors.

REFERENCES
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