Rights of street vendors

When a rural folk migrates to urban area, he has no way of making a living. So, he becomes a street vendor—buying and selling small products like balloons or popcorn or cotton candy. Or he would hire a pushcart and sell vegetables in the streets of urban India. Such persons have to earn to buy their next meal. They must also send some money to their family in rural places where they had come from. Constricting their basic needs, these people live in tough conditions to make money. Several city mayors or Councillors had considered them a nuisance and had given orders to chase them away. Sometimes police try to extract money from them by threatening eviction. But now they are looked upon sympathetically—as people who are trying to make their living under distressing conditions. A report of National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector has enumerated the street vendors. There are 17 lakhs to 25 lakhs in the year 1999-2000. As per National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, in 2009, there were 2% of the urban population. Their number had increased substantially. Now the Housing and Poverty Alleviation ministry wants to protect the rights of the urban street vendors and regulate their livelihoods. There is Street Vendors Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of street Vending Bill,2012 which was introduced in our Parliament. The street vendors must be identified and given an identity card.Their specific problems must be addressed,like living conditions. This is a step in the right direction.These self employed people are innovative enough to earn their incomes. With distress migration on the increase, accommodating large migrants is another big challenge faced by urban India.How and where to accommodate them?