Recommendations:
• That civic authority is to provide and promote a supporting environment for earning livelihoods to the street hawkers of Kolkata. Further, the civic authority is to ensure that avoidance of congestion and maintenance of hygiene in public spaces and streets should be maintained.
• That if hawking is properly regulated and the awareness to environment be created, it can certainly be a positive contribution in our city life. It is also noted by the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court. Moreover, any urban development plan and planning process cannot be successful if we have lack of confidence regarding the role of street hawkers in Kolkata.
• That any beautification programme and clean up programme by the State Government or civic authorities should involve street hawkers in a positive manner as an integral part of the same.
• That the policy should be made to introduce simple system of registration of street hawkers and non-discretionary regulation of access to public spaces in accordance with the planning standard and nature of trade/service instead of issuing license to them. Registration of street vendors will be done by the ward committees as they are best suited to access to the situation at the ground level and hawkers will be provided identity cards. The registration fee is to be introduced. The amount is to be nominal and will be fixed by the K.M.C. The registration will be renewed in every two year. The amount of registration fee collected can be utilized for the purpose of maintenance of sidewalk, cleaning of the streets. A portion of the revenue collected can be utilized for the purpose of removal of congestion in the street. Initially the registration fee may be fixed at Rs.80 to 100 p.m. for those who will hawk at the fixed place. The registration may be fixed at Rs.50 to Rs.60 per month for those hawkers having no fixed place (mobile). The registration fees for those hawkers hawking but in weekly bazar during holidays and festivals may be fixed at Rs.30 to Rs.40 per day.
• The attempt should be made towards creating a financial interface between the street hawkers and formal financial institution sectors to gain access to large credit not only for income generation but also for housing, education of children whenever the need arises.
• That the scheme already existing for construction workers or beedi worker are applicable to street hawkers also and they would be run by their own contribution as they are self employed and also through contribution from State Government. For this purpose a welfare board should be created for street hawkers on the lines of those existing. The street hawkers could deposit their contribution to bank and bank will transfer the amount to the welfare board at the end of the month. In order to make this arrangement the State Government requires an enactment of a law.
All the above observations and the recommendations are made on the basis of field survey, personnel interview of the street hawkers, leaders of the street hawkers unions and the observation made by the students enumerators.
We firmly believe that if our observations and findings be implemented, the civic authorities will be able to earn revenue and the street hawkers will be courageous enough to encounter the local godfathers and various agencies who are taking the bribes from them and taking advantage of their helplessness.
Lastly we are sure that the Kolkata will be a model to other urban cities regarding removing of congestion and maintenance of hygiene in public spaces provided the State Government shows political will to implement the national policy on urban street vendors. The street hawkers have to organize themselves and pressurise the State Government from below to implement the policy, because, there is always a slip between acceptance and implementation.
Acknowledgement:
We express our heart-felt gratitude to University Grants Commission for financial assistance. We also thank Sri Goutam Mohan Chakraborty, Commissioner of Kolkata Police for his valuable suggestions and help. We also express our gratitude to the following Trade Unions for their kind co-operation during the survey.
• Ballygunge Hawkers' Union
• Kolkata Street Hawkers' Union (CITU)
• Hawker Sangram Committee
• Rashbehari Hawkers' Association
• Pragatishil Indira Hawkers' Union
• Dakhin Kolkata Street Hawkers' Union
• Netaji Hawkers' Sangram Committee etc.
• Bengal Hawkers Association
Lastly we are thankful to Sri Subir Chakraborty, former lecturer (S.G) , Department of English, Netaji Nagar Day College and Mrs. Sanghamitra Chakraborty, Asst. Teacher, Sujata Devi Vidya Mandir ( High School For Girls), for their help in preparation of the report.
References:
• Sarit Kumar Bhowmick (2000) Hawkers in the urban informal sector : A Study of Street Vendors in Six Cities, National Alliance of Street Vendor of India. www.nassivenet.org .
• SNDT Women's University-ILO, 'Street Vendor in Mumbai' (unpublished report, Mumbai 2000.
• Government of India , national Policy for Urban Street Vendors/Hawkers, Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, 2004.www.meupa/nic.in.
• Subhasis Mitra, Role of Urban Informal Sector in Economic Growth, http://www.streethawkersinasia .
• Dipankar Ganguli. "Hawkers stay as Rs.265 crore talks".The Telegraph 30 th Nov. 2006.
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