The Union Cabinet has approved the revised Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2013, a legislation to protect the livelihood of street vendors and provide them more legal vending space in urban areas.
Once it becomes law, unabated harassment of street vendors and hawkers and their extortion by police and municipal officials will hopefully end. As demanded by the Hawkers Joint Action Committee, Mr. Ajay Maken, the central minister for housing and urban poverty alleviation has fixed the norms for providing vending/hawking licences to 2.5% of city population. The reworked Bill makes it mandatory to form town and zonal vending committee in every city. Such committees would include 40% elected representatives of vendor groups, 10% NGOs and rest comprising town planners, administrators, police and elected people’s representatives.
Leaders of hawkers Joint Action Committee honoured the central minister for getting the revised bill approved from the cabinet and asked to table it before the parliament as soon as possible. The minister has assured the Hawkers delegation that the bill will be introduced to the parliament sooner than later.
