Will our work be null and void, ask Mumbai’s interim vending committee members

MUMBAI: The much-anticipated elections to choose hawker representatives in the city’s town vending committees (TVC) will take place tomorrow; and once that is achieved, it will set the ball rolling for the implementation of the Street Vendors Act, 2014. However, in the midst of all this, a crucial issue crops up — what will happen to all the decisions that members of the provisional TVC made in the past? Will they be scrapped and redone?
After new members from hawkers’ bodies enter the TVCs, they are most likely to ask for a renegotiation of zones demarcated by the interim body in the past.
In the absence of elected hawker representatives in the city’s eight TVCs, five years ago the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had formed provisional TVCs.
“In April 2018, BMC had advertised to fill up seven positions in TVCs to be chosen from civil society, including NGOs and resident groups,” said Nayana Kathpalia, trustee of the NGO NAGAR, who was inducted in Zone-1’s TVC. “NAGAR has been involved with hawkers’ issues since 1998; when BMC came out with its hawkers’ policy, there was no way we were staying out of it.”
Once the TVCs were formed, the first round of meetings with the presiding deputy municipal commissioners of respective zones were held, which manifested in demarcation of hawking zones and the number of hawkers in each ward.
“BMC came with their massive measuring tapes,” said Kathpalia, describing their excursions to all the roads and corners in the wards A to E that make up zone 1. “Every footpath was measured, and narrow ones discarded. One fifty meters from railway stations and hospitals, and 100 meters from educational institutes and places of worship were mapped out, adhering to the guidelines of the Bombay high court’s 2017 order that had specific mandates for hawkers. No pitches were permitted in front of the entrances of buildings or shops. All rules were followed strictly.”
This cutthroat precision, in the C ward (Kalbadevi, Bhuleshwar and parts of Marine Drive), led to only two hawking zones being demarcated and no pitches, as there were too many narrow footpaths.
Similar contributions were made by TVC members from other zones. “All the members of the Zone 4 TVC piled up in the BMC’s van one day. We made a day-long field trip, trying to strike a balance between the right to livelihood and the right of citizens,” said Zahida Banatwala from the Juhu Citizens Welfare Group.
Sunil Shah, a markets representative from the Dadar Vyapari Sangh, who is a part of Zone 2’s TVC, said his team mapped about 65% of the zone over two days. “At certain points we argued against hawking zones, where footpaths were too narrow or if it was a deserted street where hawking didn’t make business sense,” he explained.
By July 2019, the zonal TVCs identified 417 hawking zones and 28,566 pitches; those in the S ward could not be located. The apex TVC then took over. “Our role,” said Vidya Vaidya from the Bandra Reclamation Area Volunteers Organization (BRAVO), “is to approve the work of the zonal TVCs and ensure the policy is implemented. While we could do the former, we could not achieve the latter in the absence of elected hawker representatives. Without that, we’ve been running around in circles.”
The last meeting of the apex TVC was held in October 2023, where elections for hawker representatives was promised soon. “Almost a year has passed since that time,” said Vaidya.
With hawkers’ elections poised for August 29, the deadlock may finally break. But members of the TVC fear all their good work will come to naught given the “provisional” status of the TVC.
Driven by this anxiety, Kathpalia, on behalf of the residents and NGO members of the seven TVC members, dashed off a letter to then BMC administrator Bhushan Gagrani on July 18, 2024.
“As almost six years have passed since this work was undertaken and finalised, we wish to bring it to your notice as it is important to ensure that this comprehensive and diligent exercise be accepted as final and ready for implementation,” she wrote.
Vaidya empathised with Kathpalia, saying, “The work must not go to waste. Neither is there a need for civil society members of the TVC to be rechosen.”
Kiran Dighavkar, deputy municipal commissioner (special), who is overseeing the elections, could not allay their fears. “Once the final TVCs are formed with the elected hawkers, the work will be placed before them and fresh decisions taken,” he said.