In recent years, climate extremes, forced urban evictions, and persistent policy gaps have intensified the precarity of street vendors in Indian cities.

Importance of Street Vendors in Urban Economies

• Urban Presence: Today’s urban landscape is unimaginable without street vendors — visible at traffic lights, pavements, and bustling marketplaces.They provide affordable goods and services and contribute to the vibrancy of cities
• Employment Contribution
  • India: Street vending employs over 6 million individuals, contributing to about 4% of urban non-farm employment.
  • Globally: Street vendors represent between 2% to 24% of informal urban employment in African, Asian, and Latin American cities.
• Definition by NASVI: A street vendor is anyone who sells goods or services without a permanent structure, using a temporary static or mobile setup.
• Area of Operation: They may operate at stationary stalls on pavements or public spaces and mobile stalls via pushcarts, bicycles, baskets, or even inside buses
  
• Economic Role: Street vendors stimulate demand for both formal and informal suppliers, create jobs for porters, guards, and transport operators generate revenue for local governments

Struggles of Street Vendors

• Social Inequalities: Vending is shaped by gender, caste, and class dynamics. 70–80% of street food vendors are women. Among Delhi’s 51,000 street children (2010 census), 70% fend for themselves, of these, 36% were Dalits, 17% were Adivasis
• Insecure Working Conditions: Vendors working on streets (not markets) face police harassment, confiscation of goods, bribery and abuse, forced evictions and relocations
• Urban Development Threats: Vendors are often displaced by urban development projects. Efforts to formalise public spaces, ignoring their informal rights
• Forced Evictions: In October 2024, the construction of the Dighalipukhuri-Noonmati flyover in Guwahati displaced over 100 street food vendors from the city’s newly designated Khao Gali (food street).
  • In July 2024, the Mumbai High Court described the issue of unauthorised hawkers as having reached “alarming proportions.”
  • In Chennai (June 2023), the highway department demolished roadside carts to reduce traffic congestion.
• Negative Perceptions: These examples underscore the precarity and informality central to street vending in the Global South. Urban infrastructure projects often treat vendors as “illegal” or a “menace,” leading to their removal from marketplaces.
• Controlled Access: Local governments control vending zones, and non-conformity can lead to fines, displacement and demolition of stalls
• Neglect of Basic Needs: Formalisation measures often require licenses, payment of market fees, but overlook basic necessities such as toilets, Sanitation, Drinking water
  and Safety
• Ineffective Support: These limitations show that formalisation does not necessarily work in favour of street vendors, especially in urban public spaces.

Impact of Climate Change

• Heat Vulnerability: Rising temperatures, like Delhi’s 41.3°C on April 21, highlight the climate vulnerability of outdoor workers.
• Urban Heat Island: The Urban Heat Island effect—where cities are hotter than rural surroundings—intensifies health risks for vendors.
• Health Hazards: Exposure to heat leads to risks such as heatstroke, dehydration and cardiovascular stress
• Extreme Heat Exposure: Delhi recorded 50°C temperatures in 2024—raising concern over climate vulnerability of outdoor workers. Gig workers like Zomato delivery agents struggle with similar weather extremes due to lack of designated workspaces.
• Invisible in Policy: Despite the severe heat waves, the issue remains absent from mainstream policy discourse. Street vendors continue to work under the sun without protection or relief measures.
• Rising Health Hazards: In summer 2024, India saw Over 40,000 cases of heatstroke, more than 100 heat-related deaths Around 40% of the country experienced twice the normal number of heatwaves These conditions have serious health implications for those working entirely outdoors.

The Street Vendors Act, 2014

• Legal Protections: Enacted to protect the livelihood of street vendors and allow vending from footpaths without harassment..The Act rejects labels like “obstruction” or “encroachers”, affirming their right to livelihood.
• Key Provisions: Registration system and local management framework for self-governance.
• Mandates: Surveys every five years, Accommodation of all identified vendors in designated vending zones.
• Implementation Gaps: Despite its promise, the Act suffers from poor implementation
  lack of awareness among vendors, surveys rarely conducted Vendors still lack:
  Fixed vending spots, Drinking water, Sanitation and Shelter

Way Forward

• Effective Implementation Act: The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 provides a protective framework, including safeguards against climate-related challenges. 
  • However, gaps in implementation continue to undermine its impact.
• Steps Required: Conduct timely surveys, create inclusive vending zones, launch awareness campaigns to inform vendors of their rights and entitlements under the Act.
• Reforming Urban Planning Practices: Urban planning must shift from exclusionary approaches to models that recognise the economic and social contributions of street vendors.
  • integrate them into the formal urban economy without compromising their flexibility and affordability.
• Local Government Responsibilities: Ensure access to clean drinking water, sanitation
  shaded vending areas Waste management systems
• Participatory Governance: Develop clear, inclusive, and participatory guidelines for vending rights and dispute resolution mechanisms
• Intersectional Approach: Formalisation efforts must be sensitive to caste, class, gender and climate vulnerabilities
• Climate-Resilient Infrastructure: Promote protection from extreme weather through
  shaded stalls, heat-resistant materials, cooling infrastructure
• Empowering Vendors: Civil society, labor unions, and grassroots organisations should mobilise street vendors, help them claim their right to the city and advocate for inclusive urban governance.

Conclusion

True urban equity demands structural reforms, where street vendors are not just accommodated, but empowered as legitimate stakeholders in shaping resilient and just cities.

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