Hawk. But not where I can gawk

The street-side vendor or hawker has become a part of the very cultural fabric of cities. In Mumbai, street markets at Colaba Causeway, Hill Road and Dadar have been touted in many a travelogue. However, no matter how integrated these establishments are in the day to day life of a Mumbaikar, their existence remains tenuous. 

“There were 98,000 applications for hawking licenses across Mumbai in 2014,” says AGNI coordinator, Nikhil Desai, who is in charge of Zone 2 of the Zonal Town Vending Committee (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation).  “However, they were asked to produce Aadhar cards and other documents, which they did not have at that time. In 2017, vendors were also asked to show Maharashtra domicile certificates if they wanted a license. Only 16,000 hawkers were able to provide all the required documents.”

In his book The Slow Boil, author Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria sums up the attitude towards hawkers in these apt words: “To many political leaders, journalists, and residents, hawkers represent a ‘symbol of metropolitan space gone out of control’ (Rajagopal 2001).”

Linking the laws

Regular shoppers at Bandra’s famous Linking Road market will no longer find them at their usual spots lining the street. Due to a road widening initiative in early 2019, the footwear stalls along the street were relocated to the traffic island at the beginning of the road. A signed letter from a BMC official claimed that the stalls would be brought back to their original spots within a fortnight after work was completed. Months later, they continue their nebulous and temporary existence.

ALSO READ: Professional parables from the pavement

28-year-old Jai Hind College graduate Faisal Qureshi, who owns one of the stalls on this island summarises their plight. “In 2016, a Bombay High Court order categorised us as licensed stall holders, not hawkers. And it was also said we couldn’t be moved unless there were strong reasons to do so,” he recounts. “This year, after a lot of back and forth during the road widening initiative, they finally agreed to build another footpath for us to accommodate everyone near the island,” he explains.

Due to delays, the plan has not yet been finalised. While hopeful of a positive verdict, Qureshi says that they are ready to take matters to court if they are not allowed to remain as a single collective.

Legal eagles

The stretch of road from LBS Marg to Agastya Corporate Park in Kurla has been allocated as a legal hawking zone by the High Court, Supreme Court and even the government. “But there are some so-called local netas who want to get us ousted so that they can place their people in this space,” says Kanhaiya Jaiswal, who has a fruit stall in the are.  “There is a BMC garbage truck parked on the pavement on the junction of Sunder Baug lane and LBS Marg meant for hawkers. Their people keep dumping garbage on the streets, so that any future surveys would find the place to be unhygienic,” he further complains.

He recounts when civic staff knocked down the boiled eggs that a fellow hawker was vending, despite the fact that he used no fire. “Illegal hawking goes unchecked near Kurla Station. But, it’s us they keep harassing. From over a hundred stalls here, less than 20 remain,” he laments.

Down South

Near Marine Lines’ Dawa Bazaar, along Princess Street, peace finally reigns, temporary though it may be. Uday Prahlad Bhatt, who runs a vada pav stall here, says the battle may have been hard-fought but they finally have some stability in terms of their location. “We worked with a hawker’s union leader to adhere to the laws pertaining to stalls that serve food. We also have our licences,” he asserts.

A reason for their relatively peaceful state of affairs may also be the innate unity of the hawkers here. “If there are any unfair demands on us, we all put up a united front and protest it.”

There is still the occasional raid by the police or BMC, but the hawkers shrug this off philosophically, as part of life.

A stationary dilemma

Along D’Silva Road, close to Dadar station, Shanta Patil had been setting up shop for sprouts for decades, as did her in-laws before. However, the 2014 law to relocate hawkers located at a 150 metre radius of the railway meant that Patil and her family were left with no space to set up shop. “They promised they would give us a different spot to help us with our livelihoods. It’s been years but no such space has been allotted,” laments Patil, whose son now tries to set up shop in between raids BMC roustings.

Patil’s compatriot, Radhika Sampat, makes the daily trip to the market from Bhayander. While her stall is mostly unscathed, as it falls beyond the 150 metre mandated area, she stands by her fellow hawkers who are without livelihoods because of the crackdown. “But even hawkers are not united,” she points out. “But I must fight for my rights and will continue to do so,” she adds. There is only one lament that echoes the sentiments of hawkers across the city. “Pheriwale ka koi sunta nahi hai. Sirf paisa nikalte hai.” (No one listens to the plight of the hawker. They simply extort money from us.) 

TOWN VENDING COMMISSION

In a Supreme Court order in 2014, it was mentioned that 2.5 per cent of the population should be allowed to take up hawking with dignity. In 2017, The Town Vending Committee (TVC) was set up to ensure a smooth procedure for creating and implementing hawking and non-hawking zones. 

The committee had 20 members including the joint police commissioner, the chief medical officer, representatives from NGOs and residents bodies and eight members from hawkers unions.

In 2018, seven zonal TVCs were also created to ensure more efficient work at zonal levels. Zonal officers shown the hawking areas of their respective zones to ensure that they followed the stipulated mandates. 

The process of demarcating hawking zones and finalising the list of hawkers has been slow going since it started in August last year, says member of the Zone 2 TVC, Nikhil Desai.

BMC SPEAKS

While the delay in the survey and the redressal of hawker’s issues has been repeatedly criticised, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Special), Nidhi Choudhari, who is in charge of facilitating the licences for the hawkers, explains the reasons for the delay. “It’s taken this long to create a final list of eligible hawkers to get a licence because some weren’t included in the survey and a lot of wrong people were. So a cleansing of the original survey had to be done, for which we asked for certain documents from hawkers,” she explains.

Nidhi Choudhari

The zonal TVCs were also finalised only in 2018. “We have been stuck in a chicken and egg situation. To determine who is eligible for hawking certificates, you need the TVC. But the TVC needs representatives from legitimate hawkers,” she explains, adding, “It was only in the last year that we were finally able to create the body by incorporating members from the hawkers’ association.”

FROM THE UNION

“The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, was promulugated in 2014. Chapter 2 says until you give hawkers an ID and shift them to a hawking zone, they cannot be disturbed,” avers Dayashankar Singh, president of Azad Hawkers’ union. “The BMC did a survey in 2014 and created a list but five years later it still has to be finalised.”

He also claims that any hawker trying to get a licence today is kept running from pillar to post, all to no avail despite the law stating that 2.5 per cent population of each city should get a licence.

THE FLIP SIDE

Oone can also not overlook the plight of the pedestrian when speaking of hawkers. Take Kandivali resident Atul Vohra, for instance, who filed a petition against the hawkers taking up the entire sidewalk in his Mathuradas Road neighbourhood (a non-hawking zone) in 2018.  “But hundreds of hawkers continue to sit here,” he fumes. “When I took the matter to the High Court, the BMC said that they do not have the bandwidth to shift them all but that they are taking action against them. This makes no sense. The legitimate hawkers should be shifted to a hawking zone and the others not allowed here.”

DOWN MEMORY LANE

The history of the vendor-municipality-residents conflict can be traced back as far as 1985 when the Mumbai Hawkers Association (MHU) filed a petition against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the Bombay High Court, seeking clarity on whether they have a legal right to hawk in the city. At the time, the Supreme Court settled the matter by asking for hawking and non-hawking zones to be created. 

Since then there have been many a survey, petition and Act passed with regards to hawkers. In 2014, the  Street Vendors (Protection Of Livelihood And Regulation Of Street Vending) Act came into power through which a survey was conducted of all hawkers present in Mumbai. The Act mandated a survey be conducted every five years. 2019, hence, marks the time for yet another survey.