Riya Rajesh

UM4000-2

Street Vendors_Sabarmati_Ward management

The studio required understanding the dynamics of the city through the study of a selected ward (Sabarmati). Street vendors form a part of the urban landscape and their management becomes an essential part of urban management. Street vendors are constantly contesting for space on the streets and their numbers are infinitely growing as street vending provides an easy form of employment to the unskilled and uneducated populace.In this project, the main focus was to understand the administration of street vendors in the city. After the initial study, gaps in the current system were identified and potential interventions suggested.


Report Content

Traditionally, the management of street vendors was the sole responsibility of the AMC. Even after the NULM, the activities outlined in the mission guidelines and the scheme were carried out by the AMC.

The NULM looked at street vendors through the lens of livelihood whereas the corporation looked at them through the perspective of management. This caused harassment of the vendors; bribery became a regular exercise, evictions continued to happen despite it being prohibited by the Street vending Act, 2014. The survey of street vendors was outsourced, but the efficiency of the survey was questionable.

The major issue identified was that the estate department was being overloaded with duties and thus the priority of management of street vendors became secondary.

Creating a nodal agency that would balance the concerns regarding the welfare of the vendors and their management is essential. This can be done by activating the SUSV cell under the existing UCD center. The cell will be exclusively headed by a Mission manager who will designate duties and oversee the activities related to street vendors.

The SUSV cell will have zonal vending sub-committees. Every zone will have an exclusive administrative body and an advisory body as depicted in the diagram above. Phase I will have ward vending committee for the central zone (as the density of street vendors in this zone is very high). After 5 years, phase II will see the WVC dissolve to form one ZVC.

The roles and responsibilities of the administrative body is outlined above.

The ZVC will conduct meetings as mentioned in the schedule above.