However, experience has proved that there are no takers for the shops in hawker plazas in Mumbai. They prefer selling their wares at the roadside and especially outside railway stations. In Dadar in central Mumbai, a hawker plaza with 1160 units was ready for occupation. The hawkers were to be charged Rs. 6500 per sq. ft. The merchants were asked to pay twice the amount. There were no takers. They were reluctant to move from their open spaces to the enclosed shops. Their argument was that no customers would bother to visit these congested areas. There were allegations that illegal hawkers were offered shops while licensed hawkers were ignored. Meanwhile, new hawkers continued to occupy the roads, locals complained.

The fact of life is that in most Indian cities, the urban poor manage to survive by working in the informal sector. Poverty and lack of gainful employment in rural areas and in smaller towns drive large numbers of people to urban areas in search of work and livelihood. By and large, these migrants have low skills and are uneducated. Hence, they have no opportunity. For such people, the informal sector is the option for survival.

The proliferation of hawkers all over the urban areas across India has been a cause of concern.  Various organisations and individuals have been filing public interest litigations, different High Courts and even the Supreme Court have passed multiple judgments but the problem is unsolved. The High Court in Mumbai in November 1998 had ordered the creation of hawking and no-hawking zones. The BMC takes shelter behind such orders but no action follows.

A survey found that almost 20 percent of the hawkers covered by its teams in Mumbai were once permanent employees in the organised sector. In Ahmedabad, a certain percent of the male hawkers covered were previously working in factories.  Half the street vendors covered in Kolkata were permanent workers in the formal sector in the past. In all three cities, most factories and almost all the textile mills and manufacturing units have closed down. It is estimated that over 65 percent of Mumbai’s working population is engaged in the informal sector. In Ahmedabad and Kolkata, the unorganized or informal sector engages more than 75 percent of the workers.

Repeated surveys have shown that while comparing the income of the different groups with the purchases from hawkers, the proportion of the income spent in making purchases from hawkers is definitely higher. As the income level decreases from the fair price (ration) shops, the poor buy all their requirements from hawkers.

The total number of hawkers is much more in Mumbai than in other metros since this sector serves a large section of Mumbai’s population – selling everything from food to books and clothes. Their wares and services are cheap and convenient. Every nook and corner of Mumbai, from the upmarket south Mumbai till the far-flung suburbs, one finds a tea stall, a vada pav and Chinese food cart, in residential and office areas.

The Supreme Court in its order of July 3, 1985 approved a composite scheme prepared by the BMC commissioner and directed the BMC to frame it “as far as possible” before 31 October of that year. The highlights of the scheme in the `Bombay Hawkers Union’ case are as follows:

* Hawkers should do their business only on 1Mt. x 1 Mt. pitch on the footpath wherever it exists or on the extreme sides of the carriageway, in such a manner that the vehicular and pedestrian traffic is not obstructed and access to shops and residences is not blocked…

*  Hawkers should not put up any stall or place any table, stand or such other thing or erect any type of structure on the pitch on which they are conducting their business nor should they hawk on handcarts…

*Hawkers should not hawk within 100 metres of any place of worship, educational institution or general hospital and within 150 metres of any municipal or other market…

*Hawkers should do their business only between 7 am and 10 pm on the day on which the prescribed daily fee is recovered…

*The daily fee charged will not confer upon the hawker the right to do his business at any particular place…

Call them the guidelines or conditions, a look around Mumbai or any other city for that matter easily shows that neither the BMC nor any other civic body took trouble to give even a lip service to the Supreme Court. Rather than regulating hawkers who occupy footpaths, the BMC has invented a novel solution. It has donated the footpaths to the hawkers, with no concern for other road users like pedestrians or vehicle drivers.

Since the onslaught of Covid pandemic, the economy has taken another major turn. The `New Economic Policies’ had already taken a heavy toll of the working class with closure of major and small industries at every level. Millions of workers were rendered unemployed. At the mid-point of their life, they perforce opted for self-employment and started looking for new avenues. Another fallout was the fresh migration towards urban areas. The existing self-employment groups such as autorickshaw or taxi drivers had saturated the labour market. Hence, many of these jobless opted for the hawking activity.

Various state governments launched different schemes to rehabilitate the hawkers but none has been successful. The main reason is the palm greasing, an activity that benefits all and the only sufferers is the common citizen, who is helpless before the organized mafia that rules the streets of Mumbai, Kolkata or Delhi.

The High Court has earmarked 131 hawking zone roads, which can accommodate around 17000 hawkers, according to one estimate. The BMC administration in its affidavit given to the Supreme Court, has stated that the stress should be on implementing non-hawking zones in phases (46 roads to start with) and simultaneously making adequate space available for accommodating the number of hawkers held eligible as per a survey report. Apparently, Mumbai can absorb nor more than one lakh hawkers while the number of hawkers is estimated to be around five lakh as of now.

Surveys and studies of hawkers in Mumbai provide several insights. For example, the female hawkers earlier used to be found squatting on pavements in working class areas. Now, they are found aplenty in Nariman Point or BKC. This has happened after the closure of the textile mills and ancillary units in that area. Their menfolk were once permanent workers in the textile mills. Most of them became unemployed for the past several years. These women run their households. But there is no special provision for this category in any court order or civic scheme.

Trade unions do talk a lot but they have not been very effective in protecting the rights of street vendors. For example, the unions were helpless when the mass eviction drive took place. However, one cannot hold unions alone responsible for the plight of the hawkers. The civic machinery in Mumbai also is guilty for taking care of the interests of the rich and famous. The media, too, has highlighted only the negative side of unauthorised hawking. The elected representatives have shown little concern for the populace.

A study was conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Patna, Imphal, Bangalore and Bhubaneshwar cities to find out the reality of the hawkers’ problem some time ago. It was found that only Bhubaneshwar and Imphal had made provisions for the hawkers in their planning. In fact, Imphal was the only city that had rules for street vending. In residential areas, it provided for four to six shops and ten hawkers per 1000 people. In Imphal, the traders were exclusively women who had won a hard three-year battle for securing this right.

Unfortunately, such examples are rare or non-existent now. The racket of passing money to everyone concerned has been so firmly established that it seems almost impossible to smash. The BMC’s latest initiative appears to be a non-starter, like previous efforts.