Street vendors in the national capital get harassed daily by the police and the municipal corporations. This, despite a stay order from the Delhi High Court against the Delhi Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Rules 2016, of the Delhi government.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Arbind Singh, programme director of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) said, “The Delhi government failed to put in place the street vending scheme as per the Act passed in Parliament in 2014. The Delhi High Court had asserted that street vendors should not be harassed till a conclusion is reached on the matter. Despite this, street vendors are being harassed by the police and corporations on a daily basis across Delhi.”
Rakesh, a fruit vendor who regularly arranges his vending cart in ITO’s back lanes, said that he and other vendors in the area faced harassment from the corporation officials as well as the police. He also alleged that vendors had to pay bribes on a monthly basis to both the corporation officials and the police to continue with their respective business.
Bhagat, a small time artificial jewellery seller in A Block of Connaught Place, told this newspaper that NDMC officials act on their whims and fancies. “Sometimes, the NDMC officials just let us work and on other occasions, they come with their vans and randomly pick up our carts and go away. Once the cart is picked, we do not get back our belongings. We are poor people, we have also got a stay order from the Delhi High Court, even then these people come and take away our belongings,” Bhagat said.
Another vendor narrated how they evade the NDMC officials. “We have our own method of signals. As soon as we get information that some official is coming for the rounds, we run away from this area. You will not see any vendor in this area if NDMC officials are doing the rounds,” the vendor said.
Some residents of Dwarka Sector 10 also complained about the nexus between the street vendors and police officials. A resident of Dwarka Sector 10, who did not wish to be named, said, “Some vendors here who run eateries, like on-the-go shops, also let their customers consume alcohol near their shops. This is done in connivance with the police, as these vendors pay a certain sum of money to the local police for letting them entertain customers who consume alcohol in cars parked outside their shops.”
However, states like Uttarakhand, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan and even Haryana have already given tooth to the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. In Gurgaon, 18-20 vending zones have already been created as per the law.