Mumbai: Hawkers’ policy work takes off after three years

Hawkers on Agyari lane near Kalbadevi. File pic

Stalled since 2019, the hawkers' policy is finally moving ahead, said BMC officials. Although a crucial meeting of the Town Vending Committee could not be held on Tuesday, the civic body is confident that there won't be further delay.

"The meeting was called off due to some last-minute changes and it will be rescheduled soon," said a civic official. After almost three years, the BMC had invited the Town Vending Committee (TVC), formed five years ago, to a meeting on Tuesday to get approval for a list of hawkers.

"The BMC had scrutinised around 16,000 hawkers on the basis of domicile criteria along with other proofs. After the state government scrapped the domicile rule, the BMC again scrutinised the names of hawkers and made a new list. The civic body is thinking of holding an election among these hawkers to elect their representative in the TVC," said Dayashankar Singh from Azad Hawkers Union.

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A civic official said, "After the approval of the TVC, the list will be published in public domain for suggestions and objections from hawkers and unions concerned. Once the list has been finalised, the labour commissioner will conduct the election. If everything goes according to plan, we may complete the process within the next six months."

The BMC first began work on the hawkers' policy after the parliament passed the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act in 2014, following a Supreme Court order.

When the BMC started the work in 2016, they had identified and distributed forms to 1.28 lakh hawkers, of whom 99,435 submitted applications with relevant documents. As the state government had made domicile certificates mandatory, only 15,361 hawkers were found eligible in 2019. However, they did not get their licence.