Will the new hawkers’ policy make a mark in Pune?

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has started executing the hawkers’ policy in the city and has begun with the rehabilitation of hawkers to designated places. The hawkers will have to pay rent on daily basis to the municipal corporation for getting a place allocated.

Anti-encroachment department head Madhav Jagtap said that the PMC has established 288 hawker zones in the city to rehabilitate hawkers. The hawkers carrying out business on busy roads and footpaths will have to shift to the designated places. These places were identified after discussions with hawkers and their representatives.

As per the Supreme Court’s order issued on September 2013, the civic administration has to allow all the vendors to do their business in the urban areas. Even the state government had given instructions to allow hawkers in the city. As per the Supreme Court’s direction and the state governments resolution, the civic body has framed the hawkers’ policy and began with its execution in the city. 

The PMC had passed the resolution to make 45 main roads and 153 chowks free of hawkers. Considering this, the PMC has decided to execute the hawkers’ policy mainly on these roads first. The PMC had stopped issuing permission to hawkers since 1997. With the policy being framed, PMC issued the fresh approvals to new hawkers in the city and also conducted a biometric survey of these hawkers.

Jagtap said that now, after finishing the survey, PMC has created Unique Identification for hawkers and has started issuing licenses. The PMC has created different categories for vendors according to the number of years spent by them in the trade.

Those whose business is more than seven years old come under 'A' category and those who have been hawkers for more than five years come under 'B' category, while those vending for more than three years, but less than five years, come under 'C' category. Traders who are in the business for less than three years have been placed under ‘D’ category.  

An integral part of economy

Street vendors constitute an important segment at the bottom of the pyramid of the informal economy in cities. Street vending provides a source of self-employment and acts as a measure of urban poverty alleviation. It also has a prominent place in the urban supply chain and provides inexpensive and convenient access to goods and services to all segments of the population, including the poor.

Street vending is therefore an integral part of the economic growth process in urban areas. Low levels of education and skills, limited access to formal credit and micro enterprise support constrain the street vendors’ ability to access emerging market opportunities.

On account of being unorganised and self-employed, street vendors and their families often lack in any linkage to social security, welfare and assistance schemes and government initiatives. This makes street vendors and their families vulnerable in difficult times, or when they may require assistance for unforeseen expenses. In this context, the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) seeks to address the concerns of urban street vendors by facilitating access to suitable spaces for vending, institutional credit, improved skills and social security linkages. The support to urban street vendors component of NULM sets out the strategy and operational guidelines with regard to this component.