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
