On Tuesday (10 July, 2012), Centre for Civil Society organized an event to launch the study on cycle rickshaws in city titled “Three Wheels on the Road of Regulation” and discussion on the same “Cycle Rickshaws in Jaipur” happened successfully. The event was marked by the presence of authorities and representatives from various departments and organizations. Speakers from all the departments concerning the subject of the study participated in the event and gave voice to the event by making their stands on the various issues related to the Cycle Rickshaw Business aloud. The main speakers present during the study launch event were Mr Manish Pareekh (Deputy Mayor, Jaipur Municipal Corporation), Mr Om Prakash Sharma (Additional Superintendent, Traffic Police), Mr P. N. Bhandari (Advocate, Rajasthan High Court), Mr K. K. Sharma (Superintendent Engineer, Department of Local Bodies), Mr Pramod Gupta (Labour Inspector, Labour Department), Mr Ashok Jain (Labour Inspector, Labour department) and Mr R. C. Sharma (Additional Diractor, Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation). Representatives of other organisations such as Kuhad Trust and Pravah Jaipur Initiative expressed their support both before and during the event. The whole Community Video Unit (Pravah Jaipur Initiative) which helped us in making of the documentary on cycle rickshaws was present throughout the event. Representatives from Kuhad Trust which works on the micro financing of cycle rickshaws, were active speakers with their deep knowledge on the current status of the financial status of cycle rickshaw pullers in Jaipur. Other Organizations present during the event were ACCESS Development Services which works for and on micro financing and livelihood of marginalized workers, Jan Hit Manch, a social welfare group and Sphere India, a humanitarian agency. The subject of the discussion i.e. cycle rickshaw pullers also actively participated in the discussion.

The event started with a documentary film on the cycle rickshaws in Jaipur named “Ae Rickshaw Wale”. The Video projects the comment of all the stakeholders on various and specific points like advantage, disadvantage, problems, role of contractors, policies, social security schemes, registration and possible solutions to the problems of cycle rickshaw profession in Jaipur. Parties covered in the documentary are Rickshaw pullers, public, contractors and high authorities like Mr Rohit Mahajan (Superintendent of Police, Traffic), Mr Ashok Singh (Law Director, Jaipur Municipal Corporation) and officials from other departments (Labour Department and Department of Local Bodies) answerable for the cycle rickshaw profession.

Subsequently a brief presentation on the findings of the study on the cycle rickshaw in Jaipur was given by Researc Associate at Centre for Civil Society, Ms Aprajita Sharma. The presentation highlighted the basic findings of economic status, social status, income and expenditure mode, financial status, awareness of government schemes, problems, policies, legal history and suggestions for the improvement of the status of cycle rickshaws.

The event progressed further with the comments by all the speakers. The discussion was contributed by questions to government officials from media and other organization’s representatives present during the event. Moderation of the event was done by Mr Amit Chandra, National Coordinator of Jeevika Campaign. Media Coverage of the event was done by around 25 correspondents from various print and electronic media agencies.

Here is the minute of the event:

Minute

Here are some news cuttings of the event:

Rajasthan Patrika news4rajasthan.com Dainik Navjyoti Dainik Bhaskar Daily News

Link of the web news:

http://news4rajasthan.com/%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0-%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%82-15000-%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BE-%E0%A4%9A%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE/

Here are few press cuttings of the event:

Jaipur Municipal Corporation started a ten day long campaign to remove encroachment from walled city area of Jaipur from Monday, 30 April 2012. The campaign was started on basis of a report submitted by an Empowered Committee constituted by Supreme Court of India. This was 11^th such cleaning drive in walled city in last 12 years, ‘Operation Pink’ being the first one in year 2000. Here are some news clips and news links regarding the eviction drive:

News Cutting

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-30/jaipur/31505987_1_anti-encroachment-drive-temporary-encroachments-shopkeepers

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-05-02/jaipur/31539892_1_temporary-encroachments-badi-chaupar-jmc

Once again, poor street vendors were the first victim of the anti encroachment drive instead of removing permanent encroachment by land mafias even when the state government had passed ‘Rajasthan Urban Street Vendor (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2011’ and notified on 1^st April 2012. The authorities tried to complete the formality of demolishing permanent encroachment by evicting poor street vendors who make their livelihood by selling fruits, vegetables and other stuffs of daily use on street.

We took up the issue very seriously and made our strategy to raise the issue of livelihood of poor street vendors and persuade JMC to find suitable solution to the issue so that the objective of beautifying the city can be attained without any loss of livelihood. In this regard CCS did several rounds of meetings with JMC officials, street vendor groups, community leaders and business group of the area to convince allowing systematic vending on street to add convenience for all. In this regard here are few major initiatives taken by CCS apart from several other things done:

1) CCS held meetings with street vendors on May 03, 2012 to organize and unite them to face or counter the eviction activity and workout a practical solution.

2) CCS participated in the meeting organized by JMC on the issue on May 03, 2012 to stand for the cause of livelihood of poor street vendors. The agenda of the meeting was to create consensus on eviction of street vendors from the walled city. We raised questions about taking vendors view point on eviction, legal parameters, and provisions of act on street vending.

3) We conducted a detailed study of the eviction area with pictures and video of the area, organized stake holder meetings and several rounds of meetings with JMC officials. We convinced all the stake holders of one particular market to allow systematic street vending to avoid traffic congestion at the same time to add convenience in the market.

4) On 17 May 2012, we gave a detailed presentation to the members of the Supreme Court Empowered Committee explaining rights of street vendors under the ‘Rajasthan Urban Street Vendor (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2011’, ‘National Policy on Urban Street Vendors 2009’ and previous judgments of various courts in favor of street vendors. Justice V. S. Dave and Justice I. S. Israni liked the presentation and shared their ideas too regarding considering right to livelihood of poor street vendors as their fundamental right under the constitution. Here are some pictures during the presentation:

Supreme Court Empowered Committee Members in Discussion

Justice V. S. Dave in Discussion

Aprajita Sharma Giving Presentation

Justice V. S. Dave and I. S. Israni Watching Presentation

5) Convinced with our representation the Supreme Court Empowered Committee sent a letter to JMC asking not to evict street vendors and develop inclusive plan for street vendors according to the ‘Rajasthan Urban Street Vendor (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2011’ and share it with them. The committee also mentioned in the letter that the JMC can seek help of CCS in this matter. Here is copy of the letter:

Letter of Empowered Committees

6) Taking cognizance of our meetings, raising the issue and getting the empowered committee notice, the JMC decided to allow street vendor to vend from the same place and not evict. Here is a news clip reading the same:

News Cutting

Jeevika campaign office of Centre for Civil Society in Jaipur hosted a group from Leaders’ Quest (http://www.leadersquest.org/) to understand its work on policy advocacy on Monday, April 23, 2012. Leaders’ Quest, a social enterprise committed to improving the quality and impact of leaders around the world delivers unique experiential programmes to integrate social purpose with performance at the core of their organisations. LQ mentors high calibre leaders, from boardrooms to grassroots communities, who are changing the world around them. This quest was tailor made for Bain & Company (http://www.bain.com/). 11 Business leaders of the company representing South East Asia, Australia, United States of America, France, Belgium, South Africa and South Korea participated in the visit.

The objective of the visit was to understand:

1. The informal economy, providing livelihoods and employment for millions.
2. Policy change and implementation – the story of getting legislation passed in Rajasthan and the challenges of getting new policies implemented.
3. Personal perspective on the informal economy from street vendors in Jaipur markets.

The visit lasted for more than three hours. The visit started with a brief presentation on Jeevika: Law, Liberty & Livelihood campaign work by Mr Amit Chandra, Jeevika National Coordinator wherein he explained in detail the idea behind the campaign as well as the initiatives of the campaign and how those initiatives helped the campaign reaching its goal. The presentation was followed by questions and answers from the LQ participants. We also had three street vendor representatives during the presentation for interaction with LQ participants.

After having brief understanding about the issues related with street vending and the campaign work, the LQ participants visited one street market to witness and understand the challenges. After the visit the participants once again had further interactions with campaign team to understand the connection between grassroot issues and larger economic growth. The LQ participants were fascinated by the insights to the informal (moving to formal) economy, civil society and its relationship with government and motivation of the campaign team for the work and leadership style.

Here is brief profile of participants from Bain & Capital who participated visited the campaign work through Leaders’ Quest programme:

Profile of Participants

Here are some pictures of the visit:

Rajasthan assembly passed The Rajasthan Urban Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2011 on 29 August 2011 (Find detailed information here: https://jeevika.org/rajasthan-assembly-passes-bill-for-urban-street-vendors/). The state act is based upon the model act drafted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India.

The state government was working on drafting rules and schemes to implement the policy after passing the bill. Now the government has notified the act to be effective in the state from 1 April 2012. Hence, the act is now effective in the state which will recognize contribution of street vendors in economy and society. However, the state government has not issued guidelines for implementation of the act as yet. Here is the copy of notification letter of the act which was received though RTI application:

Notification Letter

Adding another loop in the chain of struggle to get their business back, around 500 street vendors demonstrated at Jaipur Municipal Corporation headquarter on January 05, 2012. Gherao was after a day from the press conference projecting their agitation for violation of their Right to Livelihood. Authorities have umpteen excuses to escape implementing Pheriwalo Ka Sansar, State Policy for Street Vendors, 2007. But taking away vendors’ only means of subsistence, to make jaipur welcoming for “Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas” is a day process for them.

“Global Indian, inclusive Growth”, the much written slogan for Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas was surely not much claimed. Indians are going global indeed but inclusive growth is far away from the sight. And this has been exemplified currently in Jaipur, as to welcome global Indians inclusive growth is getting hindered. This unfair attitude of Municipal Corporation towards street vendors goaded them to demonstrate. Vendors were found saying, “If we take the right path for our sustenance, government put endless constraints in our way and when illegitimacy is the only option gets left out then jail is our destination. There is no way out for us in this absurd democratic form of government”. Had the policy been implemented of giving authorized land to vendors to run their business and registering them to give identity, eviction of vendors to beautify the city and consequently pain to them wouldn’t have happened. Higher authorities had passed the order to evict vendors mainly from 8 routs of the event. But seeing the new source of making money, police threatened vendors and seized their belongings from also. Furious by all this the demonstration continued for 5 HOURS from 11 AM to 4 PM with cries against authorities including CEO, Dr. Loknath Soni of JMC and Mayor, Jyoti khandelwal. Proactive street vendors and union leaders addressed the whole group pointing out their problems and claiming that they wouldn’t put an end to Gherao unless this eviction doesn’t stop, they aren’t given their belongings, policy of 2007 not implemented and an officer to look after their issues is not appointed. After a long wait of 5 hours a representative group got called inside to talk to Additional Chief Executive Officer, Mr. M. P. Meena, Vigilance Commissioner, Mr. Dinesh Sharma on the issue. A group of 6 people including Banwari Sharma, President of Heritage City Thadi Thela Union, Amit Chandra, Centre for Civil Society and Sanjay Garg, Centre for Policy Solution went inside to put the following demands of Street vendors :

1. To stop harassment and eviction of street vendors on the name of encroachment immediately.
2. Compensation to be given to the evicted street vendors for loss of their livelihood and returning of the belongings.
3. Implementing the National Policy, 2007 at the earliest after forming a committee to work on it and appointing an officer.

The demonstration ended after following promises by JMC authorities:

1. Street vendors wouldn’t be evicted in future any more.
2. Belongings of the vendors from other areas than the 8 main rout of the event would be released immediately.
3. Belonging of the vendors from main 8 routs of the event would be given back after 9 January 2012.
4. Implementation work on street vendor policy would be started soon.

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. To recognize the historic development and create awareness among the street vendors, Jeevika Campaign along with Heritage City Thadi Thela Union, Jaipur organized a huge conference of street vendors of Jaipur. Thousands of street vendors from all over Jaipur along with street vendor representatives fromJodhpur, Jallore, Jaisalmer, Sirohi andKota participated in the conference.

Dr. Mahesh Joshi, Member of Parliament joined as Chief Guest and Mr. Pratap Singh Khachariwas, Member of Legislative Assembly joined as guest of honour in the conference. Mayor of the city, Mrs Jyoti Khandelwal couldn’t participate in the conference even after giving confirmation due to last minute important meeting.

Amit Chandra, Jeevika Campaign coordinator briefed the street vendors on the major provisions of the bill. Addressing the conference he said, “The objective of the conference is to create awareness about the recently passed bill on street vending to all the street vendors. The bill recognizes street vendors a legitimate part of the city. Passing of the bill is a major achievement for all the street vendor unions of the state. However, the bill is silent on few of the important aspects of street vending. Hence, it is important to keep a close watch on schemes and rules which will be prepared under the provisions of the bill. We need to plan our strategy to push the local government to start implementation of the bill in a manner that benefits the ailing condition of poor street vendors.”

Addressing the conference Member of Legislative Assembly, Mr Pratatp Singh Khachriyawas said, “Our government is committed to work for poor of the state. Street vendors play important role in local economy but still they were illegal so far. This bill recognizes the positive contribution of the street vendors and gives them legal identity. I congratulate the organizers for organizing the seminar and urge them to continue their effort until benefit of the legislation reaches to the target group.”

Chief Guest at the conference Dr Mahesh Joshi said, “Street vendors are the self employed poor who contribute significantly to convenience of common citizen by providing goods and services at our door steps. By the passing of this law on street vending, Rajasthan government has fulfilled its promise to work for development of the poor. It is a historic development for poor in state. This bill would prove to be a milestone in getting the legal recognition to millions of poor street vendors of the state.”

The conference was also addressed by Mr Uday Singh Rathore, former MLA, MrSanjay Gargand all the street vendor representatives. Thanking note was given by Jeevika Campaign Associate, Mr Amit Kumar Gond.

Here is the news clip which appeared on BTV News:

Here is press coverage of the conference:

Press Coverage

Here are few pictures of the conference:

Street vendors of Civil Lines Zone area of Jaipur Municipal Corporation organised a mass demonstration with support from Centre for Civil Society on 06 July 2011. Hundreds of street vendors from Vaishali Nagar, Hassanpura, Char Number Dispensary and Pandit Ji ka Chauraha and other parts of the area participated in the demonstration. The street vendors were demanding implementation of State Street Vendor Policy 2007 which is in effect in the state but not executed till date. They met the commissioner of the zone and submitted a memorandum along with the copy of the policy and the order letters issues to zone office.

Addressing the crowd Banwari Lal Sharma said, “According to the policy the zone office of Municipal Corporation is supposed to survey and provide license and identity card to each of the street vendors. Several order letter and reminder letters have been sent to the zone office from headquarter have been sent to the zone office but the zone office isn’t doing anything.”

Amit Kumar Gond, Campaign Associate of CCS addressed the street vendors and informed them about the right of street vendor under the policy. At the end of the demonstration a group of street vendor representatives met the commissioner of the zone and submitted a memorandum.

The demonstration was lead by the Mr. Kailash Verma (Vishali nagar), Mr. Yakoob bhai (Hasanpur), Mr. Naagar Mal Prajapati (char number dispensary), and Hanif Bhai (Pandit ji ka choraha) under the banner of Heritage City Thadi Thela Union. Former Member of Legislative Assembly, Mr. Uday Singh Rathor also joined the demonstration.

The demonstration was covered by news papers (Rajasthan Patrika, Daily News, Mahanagar Times, Dainik Aaj, Samachar Jagat) and electronic media (India TV, Bhaskar News, Digi News, HSBC).

Please watch news clip from BTV News here:

Please find the press cutting here:

Press Cutting

Here are few pictures of the demonstration:

Directorate of Local Bodies and City Managers’ Association Rajasthan in partnership with Jeevika: Law, Liberty & Livelihood Campaign organised a workshop to plan the road map to execute Street Vendor Policy in Rajasthan. Experts from Centre for Civil Society gave input to the government on the policy with experience from other cities of the country.

Inaugurating the workshop Director of Directorate of Local Bodies Mr. Nishkam Divakar said, “The street vendor policy is effective in Rajasthan since 2007. The Municipal Corporations have been written several times regarding execution of the policy but it is sad that the policy has not been implemented on ground till date. The objective of the workshop is to discuss challenges that the local bodies are facing and planning the way forward so that the impact of the policy is seen on the life of poor street entrepreneurs.”

Mr. Amit Chandra from Centre for Civil Society took a session giving expert input on the street vendor policy. In his presentation he also suggested stepwise process to execute in a time bound and effective manner. He said, “If followed the right process with the strong will to execute the policy can be seen on ground in three months time. This will go a long way to improve livelihood condition of urban poor.”

Mr. Vinod Simon from National Association of Street Vendors of India shared the model work done to execute the policy in different cities. Mr. Vivek Kalia from Apni Awaz forum shared problems of street vendors in Rajasthan. Chief Executive Officers/Commissioners of all Municipal Corporations (Jaipur, Udaipur, Bikaner, Kota & Ajmer) and Municipal Councils (Udaipur and Bharatpur) participated in the workshop and shared their plan of execution.
The workshop was chaired by the Director, Directorate of Local Bodies. The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Sunil Pareek of City Managers’ Association. Thank you note was delivered by Superintending Engineer of DLB Mr. K. K. Sharma. The program was covered by several print and electronic media.

Here are some news cuttings:

Press Cutting

Here is news clip from BTV News about the workshop:

Here are few pictures of the workshop: