Mumbai hawker law targets migrants
MUMBAI: India’s western Maharashtra state has passed a law requiring street hawkers to have lived in the state for 15 years before they can apply for a license, in a move vendors say unfairly targets poor migrants. Officials in Maharashtra’s capital Mumbai this week passed the law, which also lists conditions for surveying vendors and demarcating hawking zones.
Workers’ organizations say many hawkers, who have migrated from rural areas to Mumbai to seek work and escape poverty, cannot afford property in Mumbai, India’s financial and commercial capital. “Many hawkers have been here for generations, yet do not own homes and do not have domicile certificates. This is the state’s way of pushing out these migrant workers without explicitly asking them to leave,” said Salma Sheikh of the Azad Hawkers’ Union.
She said Mumbai’s hawkers will protest the new policy and challenge the domicile condition in court. Arbind Singh, coordinator for the National Association of Street Vendors of India lobbying group, said the new law will only divide the hawkers and further alienate migrants. “It’s unconstitutional for the state to insist on a 15-year domicile. As per the constitution, anyone can move anywhere within the country for their livelihood,” he said. “Do they ask doctors or lawyers or film actors to prove they have lived in the state for 15 years before letting them work? This is clearly discriminatory and targets poor migrant workers,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Vendors selling everything from snacks and tea to toys, clothes and shoes are a common sight in India’s cities. They spread their wares on pavements, outside schools and temples, and carry them in baskets on trains and at traffic lights. Only about 14,000 hawkers in Mumbai are licensed, while the number unlicensed is estimated at about 150,000. — Reuters