https://ccs.in/hafta-bazaar-walking-through-delhis-corridors-commerce

https://ccs.in/street-vendors

https://ccs.in/model-street-vendors-protection-livelihood-and-regulation-street-vending-act

https://ccs.in/progress-report-2020-implementing-street-vendors-act

https://ccs.in/examination-implementation-sva-2014-submissions-parliamentary-standing-committee

Jaipur witnessed large number of eviction of street vendors in January before annual national eeting and conference of Indian National Congress, “Chintan” in the city. Hundreds of street vendors were evicted and their goods and carts were confiscated during the ‘Cleaning and Beautification’ of the city by the authorities.

Jeevika: Law, Liberty & Livelihood campaign of Center for Civil Society in association of street vendor unions of city organised a rally and mass demonstration on January 21, 2012. The objective of the mass demonstration was to protest the injustice of the authorities who instead of protecting livelihood of poor street vendors under the “Rajasthan Urban Street Vendor Act 2011” went on to take away their livelihood.

The rally started from Geeta Ashram, Sodala and went to Chief Minister’s house in Civil Lines where it turned into mass demonstration. Thousands of street vendor including women sat down on Dharna at CM’s residence. The demonstration ended after submitting a memorandum to the Chief Minister and ensurance from authorities of returning the confiscated goods and carts and to stop eviction immediately. Banwari Lal Sharma, Nathu Singh Rathore, Sanjay Garg, Laxmi Devi and other scores of street vendor leaders along with their union members participated in the demonstration.

Earlier a press conference was also organised on January 17, 2013 in Pink City Press Club to communicate the issue to authorities giving enough time to authorities to stop the eviction before going for mass demonstration. However, the authorities didn’t pay heed to the warning.

Here are pictures of the press conference:

Here are pictures of the mass demonstration:

Here are the press cuttings of the news:

With the aim of creating awareness on livelihood issues of people in unorganized sector of economy Centre for Civil Society in association with Legal Services Committee, GNLU organised a one day workshop on “Livelihood Challenges in the informal Sector and Policy Solutions” on October 7, 2012. This workshop essentially focused on the challenges of livelihood of street vendors and aimed to suggest possible practical solutions that could culminate into a concrete National Vendors Bill as well as effectively discuss the economic rights of rickshaw pullers. This workshop was presided over by Mr.Amit Chandra, (National Co-ordinator, Jeevika Campaign) of the Centre For Civil Society (CCS).

CCS is founded on the principle that the quality of life is intrinsically related to the pursuit of livelihood therefore the Centre develops public policy measures to clear the path for free enterprise and through research, advocacy and outreach activities shift the terms of public debate in favour of deregulation of exit and entry barriers for pursuit of an honest livelihood. The workshop discussed these Socio- Economic issues with regard to this section of unorganised labour sector.

The workshop included a documentary and other techniques (including power point presentations) so as to inform and make aware all the participant about the challenges – both statutory and practical and provided for an effective understanding about the problems at hand with regard to both, street vendors and rickshaw pullers. It also included a drafting workshop for the proposed National Vendors Bill where participants were divided into groups and dealt with specific aspects of the Bill.

Here is the agenda of the workshop:

Agenda

Here are some pictures of the workshop:

Jeevika campaign office of Centre for Civil Society in Jaipur hosted a group of business and non-profit leaders from Leaders’ Quest (http://www.leadersquest.org/) to learn entrepreneurship capacity of people at the bottom. The group liked and appreciated campaign’s policy advocacy work for recognizing street vending as legitimate part of urban market distribution system.

The visit was organised by Leader’s Quest and hosted by Jeevika: Law, Liberty & Livelihood campaign of Centre for Civil Society at Jaipur. Eight global leaders of profit and non-profit sector from China, United Kingdom, United States of America and South Africa participated in the visit.

The objective of the visit was to understand:

1. The informal economy, providing livelihoods and employment for millions.
2. Entrepreneurial ability at the bottom.
3. Possible policy solutions for the livelihood barriers.
4. Policy change and implementation – the story of getting legislation passed in Rajasthan.
5. Personal perspective on the informal economy from street vendors in Jaipur markets.

The visit started at 11 in morning with a brief elaboration on Jeevika: Law, Liberty & Livelihood campaign work by Mr Amit Chandra, Jeevika National Coordinator wherein he explained in detail the what, why and how the campaign works. We also had three street vendor representatives during the presentation for interaction with LQ participants. The session was followed by questions and answers with street vendor leaders.

After having brief understanding of the issue and the campaign work, the LQ participants visited one street market to witness and understand the challenges. The participants liked to be in the field to see the innovative ways of people making business and understood the challenges.

After the visit the participants once again gathered to share/clarify their understanding and discuss possible solutions of the challenges observed. The visit finished after lunch discussion at 2.

Here is brief profile of participants:

Participants Profile

Here are some pictures of the visit: