In the process of assisting Jaipur Municipal Corporation to implement Rajasthan Urban Street Vendor Bill 2011 in city, Centre for Civil Society conducted a survey in 23 street markets of 2 Municipal Zones Vidyadhar Nagar and Civil Line on pilot basis to demonstrate the implementation work.

We conducted a detailed survey with help from ‘Heritage City Thadi-Thela and Footpath Vyavasayi Union, Jaipur’ wherein we not only collected information but also verified genuine street vendors. Based upon our survey we developed Identity Cards for around 800 street vendors.

On September 25, 2012 we organized an event to distribute those cards along with educating people about the card and its use. The program was organized in Geeta Ashram, Sodala which witnessed participation of around 500 street vendors from the surveyed markets.

The program was also attended by street vendor leaders, group of civil society and other stake holders. Few of them are Mr Nathu Singh Rathore of Jaipur Mahanagar Thadi-Thela Footpath Vyavasayi Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, Mr Sanjay Garg from Centre for Policy Solutions, Mr J. K. Vishnav from Jan Manch, Mr P. K. Mishra; Advocate at Rajasthan High Court and Mr S. K. Sharma; Ex Officer of Indian Revenue Service.

A copy of all the Identity Cards would be submitted to Jaipur Municipal Corporation for their perusal.

Here is media coverage of the program:

Samachar Jagat Dainik Navjyoti

Here is a video clip of the event from BTV News:

 

Here are a few pictures 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:

 

 

 

 

 

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:

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:

Jeevika campaign facilitated a mass demonstration at Jaipur Municipal Corporation head office on Wednesday, 20 April 2011. More than 500 Street Vendors from different areas of the city such as Baishali, Chitrakut, Hassanpura, NBC Road, Shashtri Nagar, Dudh Mandi, Vivek Vihar, Gujjar Ki Thadi, Jawahar Circle, Riddhi-Siddhi Chauraha, Lal Kothi, and Collectorate came to participate in the demonstration.

The street vendors demonstrated to demand implementation of the Rajasthan State Urban Street Vendor Policy 2007 (Pheriwalon Ka Sansar). The policy is in effect in state since 2007 but the Municipal Corporation has not shown interest to implement it. The recent anti encroachment drive also witnessed only eviction of street vendors in stead big shots who have illegal constructions on public land.

The demonstration started at 11 AM and continued till 3 PM after meeting Chief Executive Officer. A group of street vendors’ representatives (Amit Kumar Gond, Banwari Sharma, Nathu Singh Rathore, Om Prakash Chipa) met the CEO and submitted formal memorandum. The CEO promised not to evict street vendors and requested to maintain cleanliness and convenience of public on road and public area. He also promised to start the work under the provisions of the state policy soon.

Here is the copy of memorandum:

Memorandum to CEO

Here are the newspaper and video clips:

• Press Cutting 1
• Press Cutting 2

Here are few pictures of the mass demonstration: