Protecting the street vendors

Why in news?

Recently hawkers near Mumbai’s Haji Ali Dargah had field complaint in the Supreme Court about their eviction by corporation authorities.

What are the significance of street vendors?

• Street vendors are often those who are unable to get regular jobs in formal sector on account of their low level of education and skills.
• The government recognised street vending as a source of self-employment for the poor in cities and towns with their meagre financial resources.

What are the acts which protects the street vendors?

• The hawkers are protected under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
• The Act was passed on the basis of the legislative recognition that street vendors constitute “an integral part of our urban economy”.
• It also empowers them to provide “affordable” as well as “convenient” services to a majority of the urban population.
• The law mandates that hawkers can be removed only as a last resort or unless there is a clear and urgent need, that too to rehabilitate them.

How this law empowers the street vendors?

• Committee -The law provides for the constitution of a town vending committee in each local authority to ensure implementation of the provisions of the Act.
• Representation - It has representatives among officials, non-officials, and street vendors, including women vendors.
• It also has a due representation from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minorities, and persons with disabilities.
• Forty percent of the committee members are from among street vendors to be selected through election, of which one-third shall be women.

• Decision making -The committee makes decisions on various aspects, including determination of natural market, identification of vending zones, preparation of street vending plan, survey of street vendors, and so on.
• Certification -To avoid arbitrariness of authorities, the law had provided for a survey of all existing street vendors.
• It will issue of certificates of vending to all the street vendors identified in the survey.

Source: The Hindu