Wednesday, September 23, 2009

hawkers fight back



Ivan D'Souza, who represents the 3500 street hawkers in Mangalore through the Goodangadi and Raste Badi Vyaparigala Okkuta (Petty shop and roadside vendors Federation) notes that there have been so many police actions against street vendors that his organization has "served criminal notices to the Mangalore City Corporation for destroying the sheds and vehicles that belonged to the vendors." Mangalorean has details.

Here's a wonderful stat from the article: according to D'Souza, there are 10 million street vendors in India. That means that one of every 100 people in the country is a street hawker.

He and others in Mangalore have suggested that the Indian constition has provisions allowing informal merchants to have a right to eke out a livelihood. They propose the creation of 'Hawking Zones' where both unorganized and organized shop keepers can do business in peace without trespassing into one another's interests.

No comments: