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: