Street vendors to press for rights at convention

Street vendors and their representatives from across the country will gather in Bengaluru on Friday to press for their rights at a national convention.

As many as 800 street vendor representatives are expected to take part in the convention being organised by the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI).

Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun will inaugurate the two-day event, which is aimed at establishing a dialogue between vendors and authorities.

Arbind Singh, the national coordinator and founder of NASVI, told DH that the conference will discuss measures needed to protect street vendors’ interests.

“We will urge the Karnataka government to implement the ‘Badavara Bandhu’ scheme, establish marked vending zones and set up Town Vending Committees (TVCs) to provide street vendors with an established body,” he stated.

Rangaswamy, leader of state vendors association, pointed out the shortcomings in the government scheme.

“Karnataka has around 4.5 lakh vendors, but only 1.8 lakh vendors have been identified by the government. In Bengaluru, they have surveyed about 25,000 vendors but only 15,000 have received identity cards,” he said.

Rakesh Tripathi, the senior program manager of NASVI, highlighted the poor implementation of the Street Vendors Act of 2014.

“The situation is poor in every state. Vendors do not have enough space and are harassed by the police. Delhi has formed TVCs but it doesn’t function properly. Telangana has only 3 vending zones and Varanasi has identified only 250 vendors out of its 25,000 vendors,” he said.

However, Bengaluru is falling behind in providing for its street vendors when compared to other metropolitan cities. “The situation is better in cities like Patna, which has a 2-km-long hawker zone. We want the same thing in Bengaluru,” said Rangaswamy.