Street Vendors: Temporary Stalls, Permanent Row

With Courts’ Hawk Eye On Squatters, Town Vending Committees Hold Key To Clearing The Mess

- Siddhanta.Mishra

New Delhi: Who is a street vendor? This answer to this question can ease the chaos in the city markets but for the moment, there is no certainty on which individual is an approved street seller. Not everyone can be allowed to start hawking wares on the streets, Delhi High Court recently noted. It directed the Delhi government and the civic bodies to properly implement the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The court expects the three municipal corporations and New Delhi Municipal Council to tell it of the steps taken on the problem of illegal hawking at the next hearing on November 18.

While the basic outline for hawking in the capital was presented in 2004’s Hawking Policy of the then Congress government, the Street Vendors Act, passed by Parliament in 2014, is the touchstone of the business. This legislation empowers town vending committees (TVC) to identify hawkers and hawking zones and is considered the one-stop solution for problems related to street vending in Delhi.

Each TVC comprises 30 members drawn from among the stakeholders. The panel has the power to identify hawking zones, authorise a vendor and cancel the hawking certificate, among other important responsibilities. Of the 30 members, 12 are street vendors elected by identified street vendors in specific areas.

The problem has been in constituting the TVCs and in 2016, Delhi High Court questioned the delay in forming the panels. In September 2019, the state government, for the first time, notified 28 committees across Delhi. The first task of the panels was to conduct a survey to identify street vendors. Though supposed to be completed in a month, the process is still going on at the moment.