BBMP–GBA transition leaves Bengaluru's street vendors in limbo

Bengaluru: On most mornings in Basavanagudi, flower seller Vanaja is not thinking about sales or customers. Instead, she is calculating how long she can stay put before a police constable asks her to leave. A former member of the town vending committee (TVC), Vanaja says despite repeated surveys and assurances, not a single identity card that legally recognises them as street vendors has reached them. 

“Earlier, we were constantly insisting that BBMP get our survey done so that we can get formal identity cards. Now, the survey is done, but BBMP has become GBA,” Vanaja tells DH, sounding concerned.

“Without ID cards, police treat us like we don’t exist. We are running between GBA office and police stations just to earn a living,” she adds. 

The transformation of BBMP as Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) has stalled a process that vendors say was already delayed: issuance of identity cards, making them vulnerable to police harassment and being evicted from spots from where they have been earning a living for years.

Across the city, vendors echo similar fears. In Indiranagar, fruit pushcart vendor Murugan said police threats of eviction had become routine. He is one of those vendors who has an ID given by BBMP several years ago, but it’s not valid anymore. 

“We were surveyed last year. We waited for months, but nothing happened,” Murugan said.

“The police say BBMP cards are invalid, because it’s GBA now. Every morning, instead of thinking about customers, we think about eviction. This job fed my family and educated my children. Today, I’m told my job is illegal because the government hasn’t given me an ID card”.

The numbers’ dispute

At the heart of the crisis lies a contentious figure: 27,000. That is the number of street vendors identified in a survey conducted by erstwhile BBMP between September and December 2024. Vendors’ unions, however, say the figure grossly undercounts Bengaluru’s actual street vending population, which they estimate to be at least one lakh - a number reflected in PM-SVANidhi loan data and independent studies.

The gap has triggered unrest among vendor groups, which argue that a smaller official count makes it easier for authorities to declare a majority of vendors “unauthorised”.

“They are fixing vending zones only for those 27,000 people,” said Nanjappa, a street vendor in Jayanagar. “Everyone else becomes disposable,” he adds. 

Vendors’ unions say this is not the first time such exclusions have occurred. A similar survey in 2017, they say, left out thousands.

Law on paper

In the run-up to the Assembly elections in 2023, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said street vendors were not encroachers, but “assets of the city”, recalling that the erstwhile UPA government at the Centre had brought in a law to guarantee them space and protection.

That law – Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, was meant to shield vendors from arbitrary eviction. Yet, more than two years later, Bengaluru’s street vendors say the city’s civic transition has left them more vulnerable than ever.

Vendor associations say the civic body’s actions violate the very law Rahul referred to during his campaign. 

“The Street Vendors Act was brought to prevent arbitrary evictions,” said S Babu, president of the Federation of Bengaluru District Street Vendors’ Association.

“It clearly states vendors must be surveyed, issued ID cards and protected from eviction, unless the town vending committee (TVC) takes a decision otherwise”.

Section 3 (3) of the Act says no vendor can be evicted till surveys are completed and vending certificates are issued. Sec 18(3) mandates a 30-day notice before eviction or relocation – a safeguard which vendors say is routinely ignored.

“No civic authority can evict a street vendor without a TVC decision,” he said.

“Even migrant vendors are protected. Before relocation, basic facilities like toilets, drinking water, electricity and storage spaces must be provided”.

The other problem is the absence of a TVC itself. According to vendors’ unions, after the term of the previous TVC ended in 2020, a fresh committee has not been constituted.

Advocate Vinay Sreenivasa, a member of the street vendors’ unions, told DH that GBA had plans of setting up temporary TVCs in each of the five new corporations, but nothing has happened so far.

“Everything with regard to street vendors and their lives has come to a standstill and their livelihoods are under threat,” he said. 

Legal experts say the Supreme Court has consistently upheld vendors’ right to livelihood, including in the landmark Hawkers’ Union vs BMC judgment, which ruled that evictions without due process or rehabilitation were unconstitutional.

ID cards soon

GBA chief commissioner Maheshwar Rao told DH that officials had been instructed to distribute ID cards at the earliest. He attributed the delay to administrative changes during transition from BBMP to
GBA.