Urban renewal with street vendor haats

Indian cities face a multitude of challenges, and among them is the persistent issue of unregulated streets and street vending that demand better management and organisation.

- Aravind Unni

The recent initiative of the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) to create vending "haats" holds potential to deliver broader benefits, including enhanced pedestrian infrastructure, improved food systems, and climate resilience.

In the Union Budget 2024-25, the government introduced a scheme to develop 500 street hubs, or haats, over the next five years. This initiative builds on the success of the innovative PM SVANidhi Scheme, a micro-credit facility launched in 2020 to help vendors recover from Covid-19 losses, which till date has supported over 7.9 million vendors.

Street vendors in India, estimated at over 15 million, make up roughly 10% of urban workers and are integral to the urban economy, generating a daily turnover of hundreds of crores. Street vending offers low-income jobs for migrants and urban poor, supports small industries, and contributes to affordability and local revenues, paying both official and unofficial fees to support their livelihoods.

Street vendors are also the original "green enterprises", operating with minimal emissions compared to brick-and-mortar establishments, championing climate-friendly principles long before environmental concerns became widespread.

However, outdated governance practices persist, with street vendors often being labelled as illegal or encroachers. The other stumbling block remains the argument of lack of space in cities that restrict spatial allocation for street vending, abetted by archaic planning laws that do not recognise informal livelihoods like street vending.