A suitable mechanism is needed to enable the urban street vendors earn their
livelihood in a legal manner. Delivering the inaugural address on the
National Seminar on Urban Street Vendors in New Delhi today the Minister of
State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari
Selja said that street vendors are often subjected to harassment by the
police and the local authorities due to lack of regulated norms. She said
that the street vending is not merely employment for urban poor but also a
cheaper point of access for goods and services to the people.
....................
You may recall that a National Workshop on Street Vendors was organised by
my Ministry in last October. At the end of the Workshop, an Action Plan was
prepared which called for an immediate action on the part of the State
Governments to solve the problem of Urban Street Vendors. Some of the action
points identified for implementation in the workshop included Sensitization
of the State Government Officers towards the plight of the street vendors;
Documentation of Best Practices on Urban Street Vending at ULB/State Level;
Allocation of Land Space in the Master Plan & Zonal Plans for hawkers to
ensure legitimate hawking; Facilitating medical insurance, social security &
access to credit to the urban street vendors; Setting up of a State Level
Steering & Monitoring Committee to oversee the implementation; and Amendment
to the Municipal Acts, as required.
The Ministry had, in fact, taken up these issues with the State Governments
in right earnest but the response was lukewarm. A few States have responded
but more efforts are required to achieve the objectives. Recently, National
Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) has prepared a
Draft of Revised Urban Street Vendors Policy with certain recommendations
which has been circulated to the State Governments and other stakeholders
for their comments and suggestions. Besides, there is a proposal to
formulate Model Legislation on the Urban Street Vendors, which may be
adopted by the State Governments with or without appropriate amendments.
These will be discussed in this seminar.
full text of the speech available at
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=18829
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