VEER Savarkar Marg Road in New Delhi, India, has a huge community of street vendors who are part of a growing vending sector the Indian government is out to cash on.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA Recently in New Delhi, India
Various artefacts, clothes and food are strewn all over the street, also known as Market Road by virtue of it being home to one of the busiest streets in Delhi. India is estimated to have over 10 million street vendors.
In fact, according to the National Association of Street Vendors of India (Nasvi), the hawkers in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Calcutta and Ahmedabad generate $61,26 billion in annual revenue.
The Indian government is currently working on buttressing its 2009 National Policy on Urban Street Vendors and the Street Vendors Act of 2014, among other laws to cover all street vendors. Current coverage of Indian street vendors is estimated to be anywhere between 20% and 40%.
The 2009 policy seeks to recognise street vendors as part of the national economy while the Street Vendors Act of 2014 facilitates their licensing, identification and therefore protection against municipal police flashing out illegal vendors.
Comparatively, the Zimbabwean government has no effective licensing system which would allow them to get regular fees from vendors. The National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe (Navuz) has made requests for orderly vendor operations but the proposal has been gathering dust in parliament since 2015.
In a snap survey of Veer Savarkar Marg street during a recent visit to New Delhi by Standardbusiness, most vendors said they were happy to pay taxes if the conditions were conducive for their business.
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Hariram, a vendor who sells fruit from a stall along Veer Savarkar Marg road told Standardbusiness through a translator that although he was not covered by the legislation yet, he was prepared to contribute to the economy.
“Obviously, I would want a shop but because of municipal authorities and police, it is very difficult for me to become a shop owner. I am willing to pay taxes but government must do something first to regulate vending,” he said.
Hariram, like many other vendors in India, makes between $5 and $6 profit a day, which is barely enough for him and his family. However, since the Indian government recognises these hawkers as contributors to the economy, police harassment is not as widespread as it is in Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe, vendors often lose their daily takings to police through bribery or fines. Local street vendors are estimated at 2,2 million and they generate an average $3,96 billion annually, according to Navuz.
In India, vendors’ major headache is the slow pace at which their government is regularising their activities.
Vipin Kumar, another street vendor along the Veer Savarkar Marg road, said he had now lost hope of getting regularised because of government’s slow pace of doing things.
“Now after 10 years of vending, I have lost all hope in the government. At times I do get harassed by police or municipal police but I continue to struggle to earn a living. I have now accepted that this is what I have to endure in this line of business,” he said.
Vendors’ representatives in India have for many years been struggling to engage government on this issue of regularising their activities but they are finding little joy.
Vendors complain that this slow registration process was prejudicing them especially given the fact that business in India is brisk as many people in that country prefer buying from vendors because of their favourable prices.
One female customer who preferred anonymity said “obviously I am going to buy from the street if the same item is cheaper there.”
“When you walk down the street [Veer Savarkar Marg road]you see a lot of variety and the prices are very good compared to what the shops ask for,” she said.
Another advantage of buying from India’s street vendors is that the food sold there is usually original traditional cuisines such as batata vada, bread pakora, panipuri and medu vada among others.
The legislation that the government of India is working on is meant to fully regularise street vending.
The 2009 National Policy on Urban Street Vendors which seeks to legalise and recognise street vendors, is viewed as a major step towards urban poverty alleviation.
The 2014 Street Vendors Act, on the other hand, gives provision for vendors to get licences where the Indian government can tax them through formal channels and not presumptive taxes. The Act also offers specific vending zones, special identification cards, and instructs police or municipal authorities against harassing registered vendors.
Indian scholar and economist based in New Delhi, Tauqeer Alam Farooqui said street vendors also generated jobs, which helped ease unemployment.
“India is basically a surplus economy. A lot of people migrate from rural to urban areas and they start various kinds of economic activities such as vending, hawking or other forms of self-employment. They get these jobs and earn incomes which support the economy and their families,” he said.
He said the Indian government needed to speed up its legislation to provide coverage for all street vendors.
On the contrary, Zimbabwean policymakers have been reluctant to recognise vendors and have often viewed them more as a nuisance than a revenue generator.
Unlike in India where street vendors fall under the ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation, Zimbabwean street vendors are under two authorities, the ministries of Local Government and Urban and Rural Development and also the ministry of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises. As a result, there is heavy bureaucratic bungling in dealing with vendors’ concerns.
The document that is sitiing at Parliament proposes a Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihoods) Bill which, if enacted, would allow street vendors to get licences and identification cards. This would allow government to tax vendors at affordable rates and generate revenue.
Street vendors currently pay presumptive taxes which are about 35% of every dollar they earn.
The Bill is meant to offer protection against police and municipal authorities while providing structured vending fees and give basic rights to street vendors. Currently, vendors are paying an average of $30 a month for space to sell their wares. In India vendors pay half that amount.
Local vendors rely on section 64 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which gives the right to carry any trade or occupation though it may be regulated by law.
Navuz chairperson Stern Zvorwadza said their members were keen to contribute to the fiscus as long as it provided them with protection against municipal police.
“The informal business is now the largest sector in the economy so laws have to be created in order for the government to generate revenue. Once vendors realise that the government is protecting their interests, the vendors will be more than happy and willing to pay something to the government,” he said.
