Globalization means unrestricted market open to global economic units. Market of a country is made restricted to protect the industry, employment, technology, market, wealth of the national economy from the onslaught of the external economic powers. Unrestricted market is the demand of the external economic powers who want to capture the market of a national economy. In the unrestricted markets, the foreign products dominate the marketing activities. In the face of uneven competition the local products are wiped out. The local production, investment, employment, income, demand, technology, service are marginalized.

Street Vendors, on the other hand are self-employed and self-generators of income. They are sellers of produces of special kind, produced by small entrepreneurs, cheap products, daily necessity goods-selling to specific buyers-middle class and poor. They are outside the purview of formal, organized economy, market, capital, local and governmental subsidy. They subsidise urban living by selling goods in cheaper prices. They provide market channel to small producers. They make their own economy without any official support. Vendors operate in the structure of local economy-local production, local resources, local supply and local demand. As a result of these an area of market operation is created for the communities marginalized by the globalization-women, poor, formally uneducated, disabled, uprooted from agriculture, migrants from villages, lower castes, retrenched workers etc.

It is estimated that in India 10 million women and men are dependent on vending commodities for their livelihood. Mumbai has the largest number, around 200,000. Ahmedabad and Patna 80,000 each  and Indore and Bangalore 30,000 hawkers. Calcutta has more than 1000,000 hawkers.1 They in turn provide additional employment to many others who assist them in their work. The total employment provided through hawking is therefore fairly large. Street Vendors show an entrepreneurial spirit. They provide goods in a timely manner at convenient locations. Not only this, they decentralize the marketing system of the cities and regulate spatial distribution of the cities.

Street Vendors also contribute to the city's growth and commerce. Their sheer number result in contribution in hundred of crores of rupees. Professor R.N.Sharma who headed the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation commissioned  TISS-YUVA study of street vendors in 1998 estimated that Mumbai annually consumes only vegetables and fruits worth Rs. 750 crore in the wholesale  market. The retail price is 25 to 40% higher than the wholesale price.2 Most of these are sold to the consumer by hawkers and vendors. The total annual contribution of 2,00,000 vendors and hawkers taken together in Mumbai comes to a whopping Rs. 6000 crores. In Calcutta it is estimated that the total annual turnover of all the hawkers put together is Rs. 3,000 crores. However despite these, vendors are subjected to enormous harassment by the authorities.

1. Hawkers and the Urban Informal Sector: Prof. Sharit Bhowmick
2. Census Survey of Hawkers on BMC Lands-TISS, YUVA, Mumbai 1998

The problems can be put as follows:

The master plans prepared for cities do not allocate space to vendors/hawkers. The study conducted by NASVI in 9 cities of India in 1999 has shown that the master plans do not even mention about vendors/hawkers, only the masterplan of Ahmedabad mentioned about informal sector. 1The Delhi Master Plan is perhaps the only exception in our country. It has given detailed norms.

To incorporate the informal sector in trade in the planned development of various zones2. 

Retail Trade

The unfortunate part is even this is not implemented due to various pulls and pressures

Vendors have to deal with multiple authorities i.e., Municipal Corporation, Police (Local as well as Traffic), Regional Development Authorities, District Administration, Zila Parishad and so on. This leads to more exploitation and also in some cases positive steps taken by one authority is nullified by the other.

The Municipal Corporation laws are outdated and based on 19th Century British Municipal Laws which are detrimental to the peaceful conduct of business by vendors. The policies of various corporation create atmosphere for exploitation vendors. For example, in cities of many states like Bihar, U.P. collection of municipal tax is auctioned to contractors who exploit the vendors to the hilt.

1. Hawkers and the Urban Informal Sector: Prof. Sharit Bhowmick
2. DDA Master Plan, 1990

Constitution and Supreme Court Judgements: In 1985, the Supreme Court in the Bombay Hawkers Unions vs. Bombay Municipal Corporation directed that each city should formulate schemes, which would include hawking and no-hawking zones.1 This was followed by the 1989 Supreme Court Judgment of Sodhan Singh etc. Vs New Delhi Municipal Committee and another etc., where hawking was uphild as a fundamental right Article 19 (1)g, subject to reasonable restrictions. To quote from the judgment "if properly regulated according to the exigency of the circumstances, the small traders on the side walks can considerably add to the comfort and convenience of the general public, by making available ordinary articles of everyday use for a comparatively lesser price. An ordinary person, not very affluent, while hurrying  towards his home after a day's work can pick up these articles without going out of his way to find a regular market, The right to carry on trade or business mentioned in Article 19(1) g of the Constitution, on street pavements, if properly regulated cannot be denied on the ground that the street are meant exclusively for passing or re-passing and no other use. "Further Article 39 (a) and (b) of the Constitution notes that the State shall in particular direct its policy towards securing-

a) That the citizen, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood.

b) That the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good.

These two provision create the contradiction between a legal 'licensed' vendor and illegal obstruction or causing nuisance resulting in physical eviction of even licensed vendors.

A major obstacle and source of harassment are provisions in Police Act and Indian Penal Code. These are:

Articles 34 (4)Police Act, which says

Any persons who, on any road or in any street or thorough fare within the limits of any town to which this section shall be specially extended by the (state govt). commits offence such as - 'exposes any goods for sale', to the obstruction inconvenience, annoyance, risk, danger of damage of the (residents or passengers) shall on conviction before a magistrate, be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees, or to imprisonment (with or without hard work) not exceeding eight days..

Right of the Police :- It would be lawful for any police officer to take into custody, without a warrant, any person, who within his view commits any of such offence, namely-exposing goods for sale.

Indian Penal Code

Section 283 : Danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation- Whoever, by doing any act, or be omitting to take order with any property in his possession or under his charge, causes danger, obstruction or injury to any person in any public way or public line of navigation, shall be punished with fine which may extended to two hundred rupees.

Section 431 : Mischief by injury to public road, bridge, river or channel- Whoever commits mischief by doing any act which renders or which he knows to be likely to render any public road, bridge, navigable river or navigable channel, natural or artificial, impassable or less safe for travelling or conveying property, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extended to five years, or with fine, or with both.

1. AIR 1985 Supereme Court 1206
2. Sodhan Singh Vs New Delhi Municipal Committee AIR 1989 SC 1988

The banks do not come forward to meet their credit needs as a result of which they are exploited by the moneylenders and the wholesellers.

There is no social security schemes for the vendors.

These problems have been compounded in recent years with the impact of globalization and its associated concomitant, rapid urbanization. Globalization demands appropriate geographical space for unrestricted market and creation and use of urban facilities for the development of market-i.e. Communication, transport etc for modern market, super market, mega market. Foreign loans, foreign consultant, designers, planners and contractors for the rearrangement of the city follow. Loans are tagged with conditions of making the facilities for the foreign economic units and foreign service sectors. As country clamours for foreign investment, in the perspective of powers, that be government municipality, police, ruling political party, elite customers, pedestrians and media, hawkers are seen as scum, anti-social, anti-development, encroacher, cause of unplanned growth, illegal unauthorized etc. Thus as a prelude to attract foreign investment, clean up drives become common. Massive increase in vehicular traffic and subsequently construction of large fly over become the order of the day.

As we open up, the elite urbanites want to turn every metropolis into a la Singapore. Mayors and policy makers flaunt that they will make their cities-Singapore. Citizen groups mushroom.  Mumbai has many-AGNI, Bomaby First City Space etc. though every city has a good share of them. Neighborhood watch schmes and local area management are promoted by government. Resident Welfare Association turn hawkish. City starts barricading against the hawkers.

Investment are made to create infrastructure for few. Our planners blindly imitate the western concept of marketing ignoring out tradition. Thus weekly markets are struggling to survive. Western concept of sterilized and mechanized marketing is being forced upon people ignoring the fact that display of wares and social interaction has been the hallmark of Indian markets. In order to attract foreign investment, many cities have launched beautification drive, which has intensified the eviction process of vendors. Eviction takes a heavy toll on the business of vendors and they have to restart the cycle of building their working capital.

Operation Sunshine

At the dead of the night on 24th Nov. 1996, hundreds of leaders of leading constituents after being evicted each time of Left Front and Police Cops joined hands to implement Operation Sunshine. The Cadres put on badges of Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC). They resorted to ransacking, loot, setting of fire and last but not the least indiscriminate assault on innocent hawkers. 1640 stalls were burnt and raised to dust and 102 hawkers were arrested. Calcutta based dailies front-paged Operation Sunshine, as some scribes had been taken to select spots to project operation Clean –Up side of the programme, disregarding the wailing dependant s of victims of Operation Sunshine. State Government made a statement that Operation Sunshine was successful. Operation Sunshine was essentially against economic development and anti-people.

All these factors create a 'favourable' climate for the anti-social elements and police and municipal officials to extort money from vendors. Hafta, Mamul, Rangadari tax, Protection money, rule the roost. To give an example, the total 'hafta' collected every year in Mumbai is estimated to be Rs. 324 crores.

These problems are compounded when it comes to women street vendors. But first the number of women vendors.

A census conducted in Patna by Nidan in 1997 showed that 21.56% of vendors are women.1 Given below is a summary of census according to the place/mode of selling.

CENSUS RESULTS

Total number of Vendors 59,654

As can be seen by the figure, only in case of mobile vendors, the women outnumber the men. In fact, even the access to the so-called 'unauthorized markets' is limited for even. Thus many of them are scattered. A random sample survey conducted by S.N.D.T. University in Mumbai 2000 found only 11% women vendors in the 'established' market.

To quote NASVI's study of 9 cities. "The sex composition of the hawkers was in favour of males in most of the cities. Mumbai and Calcutta have larger proportion of male hawkers than the other cities. In Mumbai over 75% of the hawkers ae males. In the other cities, namely, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Bhubaneswar males form around 60% of the hawkers. Imphal is the only city covered where hawkers are exclusively women. In all the cities, with the exception of Imphal, the income of the female hawkers is substantially lower than the males. This is for mainly two reasons. Firstly, women hawkers sell cheaper goods and in small quantities as they lack capital. In most of the cities (Mumbai, Ahemdabad, Bhubaneswar, Patna and Bangalore) they sell vegetables, fruits and flowers in small quantities. Secondly, women hawkers cannot spend as much time on hawking as their male counterparts as they need to take care of the daily needs of the family such as child care, cooking, cleaning etc. Since they lack capital to invest in their goods, they are unable to buy greater quantities of goods to increase their income 3.

1. Census of Vendors by Nidan in 1997
2. ILO/SNDT University Research in 2000
3. Hawkers and the Urban Informal Sector : Prof. Sharit Bhowmick

Women hawkers household income in less than  Rs. 2000 per month. In most cases (more than 90%) their household income ranges between Rs. 1000 and Rs. 1500 per month. Undoubtedly these women belong to families that are below the urban poverty line or just barely above it.

In Mumbai, the women squatting on the pavements in the working class area of the Central Mumbai (Lal Bagh, Parel, Chinchpokhil etc.) have started hawking after the closure of the textile mills in that area."

As can be seen women vendors are more concentrated in selling perishable goods like vegetables, fish, flowers, fruits etc. This result in higher risk in terms of time and space. Goods have to be sold on time. Evictions and confiscation play havoc. Hundreded and thousands of examples can be cited to illustrate how goods simply get rotten or sold at throw away prices or the 'rubble' is returned by the Municipal authorities  to the vendors after few days of confiscation. The working capital is disastrously disturbed.

A major problem faced by women vendors is lack of sanitation facilities in the market. This causes enough hardship. Cases of sexual exploitation are also reported from every city. A distressing picture is that a lot of old women, who are no longer supported by their families, are forced to take up vending for a livelihood.

Even among the unorganized sector, vendors are relatively more organized. A major way in which women vendors are further discriminated against is neglect and 'ignorance' by trade unions. With perhaps the sole exception of SEWA, trade unions have somehow neglected the women vendors. Women organizations have also not organized them. In absence of they being organized or women leaders among them, the women vendors are more vulnerable to exploitation.

Formation of Alliance

The increase in 'systematic' and 'systemic' attack on street vendors led SEWA to initiate the  National Alliance of Street Vendors, India (NASVI) in September 1998. The National Alliance  is a coalition of various trade unions and voluntary organization working for protecting the rights and  improving living conditions of hawkers and vendors. More than 350 organizations from 72 cities of 22 states of the country are presently part of the National Alliance.

NASVI uses every possible forum to advocate the cause of street vendors. NASVI initiates dialogue and organizes meetings to create awareness on this issue. Building capacity of street vendor organizations, developing solutions through interface between vendors representatives and authorities and highlighting issues through widespread media coverage. NASVI also conducts research and collects and disseminates information regarding best practices, laws, policies and issue affecting street vendors. A quarterly newsletter 'Footpath Ki Aawaj' keeps  its members informed by publishing highlights.

NASVI's interventions gave a fresh lease of life to grass root organizing. Perspectives broadened and strategies sharpened. Experience sharing of successful struggles helped. Finding sustainable and permanent solution became goal. The need for macro intervention was realized as also a sustained campaign aimed at bringing in policies, changes in laws and above all changes in mindset. All actors and factors concerned were targeted adopting a multi pronged  approach.

As information base was created, each piece of information was put to best use by street vendors organization whether it was Supreme Court Judgment or Constitutional Provision or Communication from Government of India or best practices of any city have all been used to the benefit of street vendors. The efforts in Delhi led Prime Minister to write to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in August 2001. Interventions at Municipal and Judicial levels have yielded many positive responses. Last but most importantly, many street vendors' organizations began organizing women street vendors.

Due to efforts of NASVI, the Union Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation, Ministry (UDPA), Government of India has constituted a National Task Force consisting of policy makers, administrators, experts and representative of street vendors organizations. The Task Force has formulated a national policy which was  adopted by the Government of India on 20th January 2004.

The national policy marks a paradigm shift in the approach of government as it is a policy rather than an adhoc and knee-jerk reaction. The policy has been posted at the website of ministry and can be accessed http://www.urbanindia.nic.in