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INDIA – Don’t see hawkers as a menace Seven City Report The Indian government has recognised that vendors constitute an integral part of the urban economy, provide an essential service, create their own employment and contribute to economic growth, says Sharit Bhowmik, a member of the Indian governments national task force on street vendors. Bhowmik, who is head of the Department of Sociology at Mumbai University, recently completed a seven-city study of street hawking for the National Alliance of Street Vendors of India (NASVI). Commenting on the situation of hawkers, he stated that in spite of their contribution, street hawkers remain poor and insecure. The study looked at the problem of hawkers in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Patna, Imphal, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar and Imphal. He found that among the cities only two, Bhubaneshwar and Impal, had made provisions for street vendors by including them in their plans. Imphal is the only city that has rules for street vending. In residential areas it provides for four to six shops and ten hawkers per 1 000 people. In Imphal, the traders are exclusively women who have won a hard three-year battle for the right to trade. The women have a hard life, starting work at 4.30am and returning home in the evening. As the market cannot afford electricity, they have to use kerosene lamps. In Bhubaneshwar, the development authority has reserved three percent of public space as a commercial zone. Space is also reserved on the pavements for street vendors. Bangalores vendors are a comparatively small group as other employment opportunities exist in the city, according to the study. In Ahmedabad where there are 80 000 hawkers, 40 percent are women. The study notes that the women are well organised as they are part of the Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA). Source: The Times of India, Mumbai, December 24, 2001. |