Bombay Hawkers Association’s message:hawkers are not a nuisance 

Bombay Hawkers Associations message:
hawkers are not a nuisance

By Suresh Kapile, General Secretary

For more than a 100 years, hawkers have been doing business on the streets of Mumbai. Records show that in even in those early days the police used to take action against the hawkers.

It is common to find the housing complexes of the rich and upper middle class have a notice at the entrance saying Dogs, beggars, hawkers not allowed. This is symbolic of the position of hawkers even in an under-developed country like India. The central government, the state and local government look at it as a nuisance to the society instead of as a socio-economic reality.

Since the adoption of the so-called `New Economic Policies, there has been massive closure of major and small industries. Several thousands of workers who have become unemployed have opted for self-employment. Already, self-employment groups such as autorickshaw or taxi drivers, are at saturation point and most have joined the hawking trade.

The leftist government of west Bengal launched what is known as Operation Sunshine through which they removed several thousand hawkers from the streets of Kolkatta forcibly. Later on this was followed in all other mega cities of India.

The central government of India has appointed a Task Force for Street Vendors/Hawkers at the insistence of the World Bank. Being a member of the Task Force, I have taken an active interest in solving the Hawkers problems particularly in Mumbai. There are 300 000 hawkers/street vendors in Mumbai, who are forced to pay corruption money (known as hafta) to police and officers of local government. This is almost half of the earnings of the hawkers/street vendors. Almost 30-35 percent of the hawkers are women selling vegetables, fruit etc. They are not spared physical assault and other harassment by the officials.

In view of the above, we welcome the move of the organisers for the world meeting of street hawkers and vendors. All hawkers and street vendors must unite. The international organisation must actively support the hawkers and street vendors in the cities of under developed countries. A conference of this type must force the governments of under-developed countries to make hawking a constitutional right. We hope that this worldwide conference will give proper directions to the hawkers and vendors cause and help to establish the right to livelihood through hawking/vending.