Urban Governance and Street Vendors in Delhi: 1957–2017

In countries like India, during the post-colonial period, rapid urbanisation has gone hand in hand with skyrocketing urban poverty. This has resulted in an increase in the number of people engaged in the informal sector to earn a living. Among them, one of the most conspicuous are the street vendors whose survival depends on access to public places such as parks, pavements and squares. The nature of this access is interceded by the presence and intervention of the state, mediated through the global shifts in the ‘development discourse’. Urban studies concerning the street vendors in India are a relatively new theme, and works focused specifically on Delhi are even scantier. This research aims to examine the status and experiences of street vendors from a statistical perspective, particularly focusing on the urban governance in the city of Delhi. The article relies primarily on (apart from the policy and legislation documents) a reading of the Delhi Master Plans 1962, 2001, 2021 and judgments from the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court, which shed light on the issues of status of the vendors’ rights, legality and feature interpretations of schemes/acts pertaining to them. In 1957, the Municipal Council of Delhi and the Delhi Development Authority were constituted via acts that drew heavily from their colonial predecessors. In 2014, the Street Vendors Act was passed, and amendments were made in 2017. The article argues that the content of Master Plans for spatial growth and reconfiguration of the city has echoed the discussions happening on the international platforms about recognising urban informality as well as the policy shifts in the country, but has failed to go beyond that, carrying only token mentions of the trade. As far as the legal cases are concerned, it is found that the court contradicts itself by acknowledging a ‘street vendor’s’ right to ‘vend’ but not their right to the ‘street’.