Cities have no policy, provide no protection, bemoan street vendors

Mangaluru: Wat is a city that does not have street vendors? The Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagaraPalike does not have a policy for the street vendors and so does the cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru and other cities in the state. Crackdown on the street vendors in various areas including the transport hubs of the cities have have become regular sites for eviction of street vendors.

State Bank circle and the Lady Goshen bus stands in Mangaluru, Subedar Chatram Road, BVK Iyengar road, KR Market, Yeshwanthpura, Malleshwaram, Vijayanagar are some of the areas in Bengaluru, Bamboo Bazaar, Vani Vilas Market and Dhanavantri road in Mysuru city are some of the areas in the state where the crude and inhuman way of evictions take place.

Such evictions were quite useless as the vendors will come back and carry on their business in the same place, it is not their problem but it is that of the city's planners and civic bodies

The Bengaluru city has an estimated to have over 1.5 lakh street vendors inside the Bengaluru business district out of which only 3,500 licences were issued without creating any facilities for them. There is also a hefty fees which the vendors do not grudge paying. But rest of the street vendors still living on the edge.

"In some places like Yeshwanthpur, Malleshwaram, Rajajinagar and Vijayanagar they have created some kiosks and hawking zones, but that leaves a large number of hawkers outside the system" Basamma president of the Bengaluru JillaBeedibadiVyaparigala Sangha told The Hans India. "The government does not have a policy for the safe living of the vendors" she rued.

In Mangaluru there are an estimated 20,000 street vendors and except for their location of they do eke out an honest livelihood, "they contribute a large chunk of micro economy in by vending essential goods like food grains, vegetables and fruits and have their own clientele, without them the lower middle class, the labour class and the unorganised market will cease to exist which will be a blow to the lower strata of economy" Researchers from the school of social work at Roshni Nilayawho also studied the 'street vendor factor' in Mangaluru city which has suggested that the city should have 'hawking zones' to accommodate the street vendors and casual market structure. (Tomorrow: Evicting vendors will not help)