Sharit K. Bhowmik's blog

Of all the state attempts to provide some protection to street vendors, Maharashtra — home to Mumbai — is the worst. In 2010, the state's legislature modified the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act and all other similar laws governing local bodies. The amendment states that any person engaged in street vending in a non-hawking zone will be fined INR5,000 ($96) and imprisoned for six months. Even pickpockets and other petty criminals are given lighter sentences. Does the government think a street vendor is a bigger criminal? Learn more.

In Part I of our series on street vendors in Mumbai, Professor Sharit Bhowmik, an expert on labor issues, introduced us to the hawkers and their lives. Many of Mumbai's street hawkers, who number about 250,000, were formerly wage earners in the formal sector who took to vending after the shutdown of textile mills in the 1980s. The vendors color Mumbai's streets with their wares, but the municipality has been less than welcoming. In Part II of our series, we look at laws governing street vending and related landmark court cases. Learn more.

Mumbai's hawkers fill the bustling city streets with their colorful products, foods, and services. Selling everything from fruits and vegetables to hot snacks and fashionable footwear, hawkers provide affordable products in convenient locations, often near train stations, businesses, and market areas. Nearly one-third of the city eats from a street vendor each day, and hawking provides jobs to more than 250,000 of the city's poorest. Despite this, the municipality has taken a hostile stance on street vending, with widespread demolition of vending stalls and seizing of hawkers' goods. In a three-part series by Professor Sharit Bhowmik, an expert on street vending and labor issues at the Tata Institute for Social Sciences (TISS), we will be introduced to the city's street vendors, understand the laws governing street hawking, and explore possible solutions for integrating street hawkers more justly into urban life. Learn more.