Reconsider the financial assistance provided for hawkers during the lockdown period as well as the criteria of those eligible for this assistance, appealed Azad Hawkers Union Chairman Dayashankar Singh on April 16, 2021.

In a letter addressed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Singh thanked the state government for considering hawkers during April’s lockdown restrictions and announcing a monetary relief package for the same. However, he pointed out that the package of Rs. 1,500 per registered hawker was a meager supply to account for month-long rations. Further, he said that many hawkers also lost out on the packages due to pending surveys of eligible hawkers.

“Small-scale hawkers, who are living on wages, are going to suffer huge losses in this year’s layoffs. Their financial losses after the previous lockdown are still not fully recovered. This second lockdown could ruin their lives,” said Singh.

On April 13, the state government under Thackeray announced stricter guidelines in light of rising cases. He mentioned that essential services, including some hawkers will be allowed to continue work. Further, the government will spend at least Rs. 5,200 crore on providing financial assistance to the poor working class.

Under the PM SVANidhi Yojana, Rs. 1,500 will be sent to at least five lakh hawkers in the state. However, as Singh pointed out, the scheme does not account for unregistered hawkers who far outnumber registered street vendors.

The last survey in 2014 declared 17,641 street vendors out of 99,435 applicants eligible for a vending certificate. Outstanding applicants still wait for the day that they receive their certificates under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 that recognises receipts of the fee levied on vendors as a valid document to prove their eligibility for a vending certificate.

For this reason, the hawkers group requested the government to consider all hawkers in the public scheme while observing lockdown-like restrictions to address the issue of rising coronavirus cases.

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Hawkers continue to live under lockdown restrictions despite the regular announcements of the nation-wide Unlock phases, said the national coordinator of the National Association of Street Vendors in India (NASVI) Arbind Singh recently.

Singh said that hawkers nowadays engage with a fourth of their original number of customers ever since the country-wide lockdowns were announced. The earnings from such sales are enough to make ends meet but the police have allegedly made their lives difficult by displacing the hawkers from their original vending-spots.

“The vendors are often made to leave the market area by the police before their designated time. For example, previously they were allowed to do their sales from 9 AM to 4 PM. But the police used to make them move before closing time. This has a huge impact on their sales,” said Singh.

The association has appealed to centre and state governments to consider the vendors’ situation and grant them identity cards to allow them to do their work with dignity. They also asked the government to recognise vegetable sellers and fruit sellers as essential services workers and to provide them with direct online payment. So far, only six states have offered any monetary relief to vendors.

Meanwhile, Shahdara south zone Town Vendors Committee (TVC) member Berjender Kumar Yadav said that the committee is assisting hawkers avail the Rs. 10,000 loan under the PM scheme.

However, while filing for the loans they found out that the hawkers require a letter of recommendation by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to get the loan. Due to this, only two out of nearly 200 applicants have successfully received the loans, said another TVC member Mohammad Irshad.

“While getting the letter, the MCD looks at various aspects along with the fines charged by the police on the hawkers. Since nearly all the hawkers have received a fine due to the lack of a certificate, hardly anyone benefits from the scheme,” said Irshad.

The certificate Irshad referred to was a document that was to be given to the street vendors as per the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act of 2014 that protects the rights of urban street vendors in India.

“As per the Vendors’ Act of 2014, the TVCs should have conducted a survey by now to identify those hawkers who are eligible for a certificate. However, for many years this survey has been interrupted by the government for some or the other reason. As a result, nobody has a hawker certificate yet,” he said.

The law states that the TVCs are to conduct the aforementioned survey once every five years. Chapter 8 of the Act even bars the police from harassing the vendors exercising their right to work. However, there is no penalty for the violation of this rule.

“If you think about it, the street vendors are the most ‘atmanirbhar’ people in this country but they do not yet have the proper backing of the law,” said TVC member Yadav although he conceded that the Act wasn’t at fault.

Similarly, while NASVI’s Mumbai coordinator Dayashankar Singh agreed that the Act was good, he said the Act could be made better if they define a ‘hawking-zone.’

“Currently, the Act does not have a definition for a hawking-zone. So, the police and the municipality end up giving them objectionable areas as vending zones,” said Singh.

While he agreed that a train station would be a poor location for a stall, he argued that any place where the hawker set up their stall could be considered a hawking-zone as long as it did not hinder the people passing by.

When asked about the condition of Mumbai vendors during the lockdown, Singh said, “The hawkers are doomed.” He said that all the 450 ice-cream sellers (also members) who had come from Rajasthan had returned to their villages. “Nearly 80-85 percent of hawkers who had come to Mumbai from different parts of India have left. They sometimes call to ask when they can return,” he said.

Even on returning, they still face the administrative difficulty of obtaining a certificate because the BMC asks for a domicile certificate which most people living with their relatives or out on the streets do not have. As a result, only 17,461 hawkers were declared eligible for the vending certificates.

To add to the problem, the places vacated by the hawkers have been occupied by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers which could lead to conflict.

Perhaps the one who can aptly convey the plight of the vendors is the Azad Hawkers Union’s President Vijayalaxmi Gaikwad who saw the police lathi-charge the vegetable and fruit sellers in Vikhroli.

“Around that time, there was a growing concern that street food could spread the coronavirus infection. So, vegetable sellers and fruit sellers suffered in particular,” said Gaikwad.

A flower-seller herself, Gaikwad said the street-sellers were harassed by the police even though they adhered to the lockdown guidelines as far as possible.

“We go to the police when we need help. But when the helpers themselves are attacking us, what can we do?” she asked.

The Street Vendors Act may be read here: 

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After mainstream news media channels and some elements on social media started targeting minorities, solely attributing them for the Covid-19 outbreak and turning the issue into a communal pandemic, the ripple effect of the same is being felt by some of the most marginalized.

Migrant hawkers who work as daily wagers in the city, are already feeling the pinch due to the lockdown due to agricultural services being hit and supply being limited. Due to the lockdown, some prefer to order essentials online due to the scare of the infection and that already has revenues of such hawkers dwindling.

Add to this woe, is the racial profiling they have become the targets of after the insinuation of the media. In this regard, the Anand Parvat Daily Hawkers’ Association (APDHA) which is affiliated to the Workers’ Unity Centre, India (WUCI), has issued a press statement demanding strict action against those Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) which are profiling hawkers based on communal lines.

The press statement read, “It is unfortunate that the street hawkers are being identified along the lines of communal identities, as several RWAs in the capital, and across the country, have barred the street hawkers from entering the colonies and localities. APDHA strongly condemns the said action of RWAs who are in the time of Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, resorting to communal profiling of hawkers and preventing them from providing services to the common people.”

The association also criticized the new directive from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs which said that only those hawkers with ID cards and Certificates of Vending would be allowed to serve people. Signed by Mr. Lalit, a member of the executive committee of the association, the statement read, “This is discriminatory as earlier there was no such standing order. This would penalize not only the many hawkers who do not have ID cards or such certificates would be deprived of their livelihood, but the people would be greatly inconvenienced due to such discriminatory orders. APDHA also urges the state governments to implement measures to apprehend the persons spreading communal hatred during lockdown.”

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