wl-6349-Digital Developmentalism and Street Vending: Redefining the Obligations between the State and the Informal Economy

Digital identity (Aadhaar) and digital payments (Unified Payments Interface) have become ubiquitous in the lives of informal workers like street vendors. While scholarly debates on street vending in India have focused on the rights-based developmentalism of the early 2000s, the past decade has seen a rise in digital developmentalism with the government’s flagship “Digital India” programme. This paper analyses the conditions of street vendors amidst increasing dependency on digitization for payment exchanges, welfare benefits, and governance. Even though government and private actors portray these transitions as empowering street vendors, there are significant downsides to the economic and welfare position of street vendors in the digital developmentalist regime that need to be considered. I argue that digitization is not simply a change of the medium of exchange to the virtual sphere, but rather, that digitization changes the obligations and accountability of the state towards street vendors. I explore five main themes concerning the lives of street vendors: digitization and the welfare state, digitization and on-ground digital breakdowns, digitization, harassment and the Street Vendors Act 2014, the future of street vending and eCommerce, and protests in the digital age. I conclude with suggestions to keep digital technology policy more accountable to those in the informal economy.