Rajasthan state assembly passed Urban Street Vendor Bill 2011 (Nagar Path Vikreta Adhinyam) on August 29, 2011. The bill is based on the Model Urban Street Vendor Bill which was prepared by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India in 2009. The bill would replace the existing Rajasthan Street Vendor Policy, ‘Pheriwalo Ka Sansar’ of 2007 which couldn’t be very effective. The bill aims to ensure protection of livelihood of more than 1 million urban street vendors who live under constant threat of loss of their means of livelihood and will regulate street markets of Rajasthan.
The Government of India enacted the National Policy for Urban Street Vendors in 2004. Based on the Policy, the Govt of Rajasthan adopted a State Policy called Pheriwalo Ka Sansar in 2007. Despite the efforts by various Street Vendor organizations the policy was not implemented in the state. In 2009 a model law was drafted by Government of India and was sent to the State Government for enactment in the state. Even the Prime Minister ofIndia, Dr. Manmohan Singh wrote letter to the Chief Minister of Rajasthan in August 2009 regarding the enactment of the law.
Centre for Civil Society has been running advocacy campaign ‘Jeevika: Law, Liberty & Livelihood’ since 2009 demanding an act to protect the livelihood of street vendors in Rajasthan.
Here are the major provisions in the bill:
- Provides legal status to street vendors
- Provisions hawking zones in urban development/ zoning plans
- Provides access to basic facilities in street markets
- Make street vendors a special component of the urban planning and development
- Promotes self-compliance amongst street vendors
- Promotes organizations of street vendors
- Sets up participatory mechanisms for orderly conduct of urban vending activities
- Rehabilitation of children engaged in vending/hawking
- Provides social security to street vendors
However, the bill aims to give urban street vendors a legitimate identity it also lacks some important aspects which would most probably surface as a challenge during implementation of the bill.
Here is copy of the bill passed in the state assembly:
Rajasthan Urban Street Vendor Bill 2011
Here is CCS comments on the bill:
Here are two news clippings which appeared during the assembly:
