Mr. Maken was speaking at the inaugural session of the national convention of street vendors which was organized by the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI). More than a thousand street vendors and their representatives from 23 states of the country joined the convention. The theme of the convention was “Challenge 2040: Countering the Marginalization of Working Poor and Need of Inclusive Central Law for Street Vendors”.
The Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shri Kodikunnil Suresh, Bihar Urban Development Minister Shri Prem Kumar and Professor Shri Babu Mathew of National Law University also attended the convention. Besides, several municipal executives, mayors, livelihood and labour experts and representatives of development agencies also participated in the convention.
Mr. Maken said, “the government introduced the Street Vendors Bill in the last session of the Lok Sabha, but the street vendors still have issues of concerns and they want an effective central legislation which can ensure protection of their rights and entitlements. The government is live and responsive to those concerns and we would ensure that livelihood protecting effective central legislation gets enacted”, Mr. Maken said amidst thundering applause by street vendors. He said that the rules or schemes should not usurp the rights mandated by the law.
The Minister advocated strongly for the inclusion of railway land under the purview of street vendors’ legislation and said that he would take up the matter with the Ministry of Railways. He said that the natural markets have had been the intrinsic part of urban landscape and life and those could not be uprooted.
He announced that sufficient allocation would be made under the National Urban Livelihood Mission for the welfare and economic upliftment of street vendors. The minister also announced that his ministry would roll out an innovative loan scheme for street vendors soon and the allocations would be made under different schemes for developing model vendors’ markets in different cities. Mr. Maken said that the Public-Private- Community Partnership (PPCP) model should be adopted by all municipal authorities while developing plans of vendors’ markets.
The Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shri K. Suresh said, “The street vendors are a neglected lot and hence their welfare is of utmost importance. The vendors do need social protection and more efforts would be made by the government towards this end.”
The Minister dwelt extensively on the structure and salient features of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and said that the scheme would include all street vendors. He, however, added that many bottlenecks were there in the implementation of the scheme and the ministry was finding ways to improve the implementation.
Reign of Terror of Municipal Bodies and Police Against Street Vendors must Stop
Right to Secured and Dignified Livelihood must be Ensured
Special Correspondent - 2012-12-13 11:53
The Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) Shri Ajay Maken announced on here today that enacting effective central legislation for street vendors of the country for protecting livelihood was one of UPA government’s top priorities and the government would ensure that the law gets enacted at the earliest. He said, “Reign of fear and terror of municipal bodies and police against street vendors must stop and right to secured and dignified livelihood must be ensured through effective legislation”.