Vendors
have been amongst our earliest members at SEWA. We have been
organising against the various injustices they confront every
day. These are mostly a consequence of lack of urban policies
and laws pertaining to street vendors. They continue to be perceived
as "traffic obstruction", "nuisance" and
even "criminals". They are routinely harassed by local
authorities and evicted from their vending sites.
SEWA
vendors have been actively leading their campaign for "two
baskets-worth of space", licenses and identity cards and
representation in urban boards which formulate policies and
laws for vendors and urban development in general.
The
SEWA vendors’ campaign has been strengthened by nation-wide
and international alliances.
In
1999, the National Alliance of Street Vendors in India (NASVI)
spread to several states and vendors’ organisations. An
eight-city study is underway to document conditions of vendors,
town – planning laws and policies and "best practices"
in different cities. The results were out in early 2000 and
were presented at a national convention of street vendors. Four
regional workshops on the legal status of vendors have been
organised by NASVI. In the Bangalore meeting of the Southern
Zone, the Chief Minister of Karnataka State has promised that
his will be the first state to develop a policy for vendors.
In
Delhi, as an outcome of the Northern Zone vendors’ 600
vendors have formed their own union. They have opened three
savings and credit group bank accounts after much struggled
with local banks that were initially wary of them. They have
also initiated a joint study with the Municipal Corporation
and the School of Planning, as space for vending is their prime
concern.
The international
Alliance of Street Vendors, now called Streetnet, was formed
in 1995 at Bellagio, italy, when vendors of 11 nations met and
prepared the Bellagio Declaration for vendors’ rights.
Streetnet is now based in Durban, South Africa and is growing
rapidly in other continents. It is being actively assisted by
WIEGO, especially in the area of statistics on vendors and calculating
their economic contribution. In fact, WIEGO arranged a pancel
on street vendors at the Association for Women in Development
(AWID) meeting in Washington D.C. with representatives from
SEWU in South Africa, COPEME a Peruvian vendors’ organisation
and SEWA as well as municipal officers from these countries.
An international vendor conference is planned for the year 2000
in Lima, Peru.
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