Law leaves Ahmedabad hawkers in limbo

Promit Kumar, another vendor selling bhaji puri in the Anaj Bajar area, says he was forced to hire a handcart after his own was confiscated by the corporation. Kumar complained that he was manhandled by AMC staff.

“Now I will have to wait for three months before I get back my larri which will not be handed over to me unless I pay fine,” says the 26-year-old.

Vendors complain that besides hafta, they have to pay money to every other policeman and municipal official who comes calling.

“This is the sorry tale of vendors not only in Ahmedabad, but everywhere in the country as they are not protected by law,” says Self-employed Women’s Association (SEWA) co-ordinator Manali Shah, who has been organising the vendors.

Shah said hawking was governed by laws first framed by the British, which have not been changed much. Most of the laws go against the interest of hawkers, she said.

According to a SEWA paper presented at a recent seminar in Ahmedabad, hawking was deemed an illegal transaction unless the hawker had a licence from the municipal commissioner. What the paper found unfair was that issuing or denying licence was at the commissioner’s discretion, with no scope for appeal.

Gujarat Majdoor Manch (GMM) president Ashok Punjabi says that the problem became acute after 1980, when several jobless textile mill workers took to hawking. Punjabi says that without giving thought to the socioeconomic factors, the municipal corporation began anti-encroachment drives. One of the biggest was undertaken in 1983. In 1985 the Supreme Court ordered AMC to create zones in the city where hawking was either permitted or not permitted. AMC created the zones, but left the hawkers with little room, said Punjabi.

Municipal commissioner B.K. Sinha justified the rules, saying that without them the entire civic system would collapse. As to allegations of bribery, he said, so far there have been no complaints but action would be taken against if any such case was reported to him.

Deputy municipal commissioner R.R. Varsani, however, denied the allegation that licences were not being provided to lawyers. “We obviously cannot give hawkers facilities like mini stalls or separate space because the law does not permit us to do so,” he countered the hawkers’ complaints.