Civil Details: rules and lobbying for Mumbai Street Hawkers

A link to Government action, regulations, requests from the public at Karmayog.

Great site and union organization called NASVI: National Alliance of Street Vendors of India

“….Beginning as a Network in 1998, The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) was registered in 2003 under the Societies registration Act of 1860 to bring together the street vendor organizations in India so as to collectively struggle for macro-level changes which had become imminent to support the livelihood of around 10 million vendors which stand severely threatened due to outdated laws and changing policies, practices and attitudes of the powers that be.NASVI is a national federation of street vendor organizations. Itis a coalition of Trade Unions, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and professionals….”

A Few Links to Hawker Unions: good and bad

Here’s a few organizations I started with…

CitiSpace is an interesting group to speak with regarding vendors. CitiSpace tends to see hawkers as a problem because they are working to preserve parks and city walk ways… but this is a reasonable position to be held when you consider the sparse nature of Mumbai’s open spaces. They are worth talking to and are very active in lobbying for the clearing of hawkers from roads and parks. This article covers the predicament. They can be contacted at cityspace@nagarallniance.org and are not far from the Center for Education and Documentation.

The Center for Education and Documentation (the CED) is one of the best periodical resources for hawker and street vendors that I’ve come across. Costs 200rs a day to use the library and 6rs for copies. The center has clippings of hawker related news from the last 5-7 years. Very helpful. Located in Colaba. No need to call before going, and someone can show you around the place.

Karmayog is always one of the first places people stumble upon: it’s out of date and of the few organizations it’s linked up to one of the only viable links leads to a questionable contact with the Lok Seva Kendra Hwkers.