MCD set to conduct census of street hawkers operating in Delhi

The last and only time the civic body undertook such a survey was in 2021

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is set to conduct a fresh census of street hawkers, vendors, and markets in the Capital, officials aware of the matter said on Monday, adding that the project is likely to take around six months to complete.

Currently, there are an estimated 400,000-500,000 vendors and hawkers in Delhi, according to MCD officials. (FILE)

The last (and only) time the civic body undertook such a survey was in 2021, when the erstwhile trifurcated MCDs identified 76,301 street vendors operating in Delhi. According to the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), during the last survey, a large number of street vendors migrated out of the city, due to which the exercise was impacted, and a fresh survey will be able to yield better results. The association estimates that there are around 500 weekly markets in the city.

An MCD official overseeing the fresh census said its results will enable the corporation to assess the current locations of street vendors, and areas of demand. “The process of hiring the survey teams will be completed by September 12 and the overall exercise is expected to cost ₹2.2 crore. Currently, there are an estimated 400,000-500,000 vendors and hawkers in Delhi,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act was cleared by Parliament in 2014, and subsequently, Delhi notified the vending rules and scheme in 2017 and 2019, respectively. The Act estimates street vendors and hawkers reasonably constitute 2.5% of the population of a city.

The Delhi government has notified 28 town vending committees (TVCs) to govern vending activities in the Capital — 11 TVCs in erstwhile North MCD areas, six TVCs in East, and nine in South, along with committees in NDMC areas and Delhi Cantt. Each TVC has 30 members, it is headed by the zonal deputy commissioner, and has representation of elected street vendors.

The MCD official quoted above said the civic body is taking up the exercise on behalf of the Delhi government’s urban development department, and the survey results will act as the electorate database for the elections to the town vending committees.

An MCD report on the need for the new survey, which invited bids for hiring companies, said that Delhi has seen a large-scale migration of people coming to the city in search of livelihood, and the exercise is being undertaken to develop a database for present status of the street vendors in the city streets for future interventions such as regularisation of the hawking activity.

Arvind Singh, NASVI national coordinator, said TVCs and vendors should be made a part of the survey exercise to ensure a fair process.

“The rules notified by the Delhi government in 2019 had envisioned that the first set of TVCs elected by the vendors will undertake the survey exercise. Around 76,000 certificates of vending were issued by the MCDs, but so far, no vending zones have been allocated to them. On the other hand, a large number of street vendors are being removed in preparation of the G20 Summit,” Singh said.

An MCD spokesperson said, “The corporation has also kept the window open for the registration of street vendors on an online portal. The survey will be done by the selected agency with the help of TVC members as per earlier practice and existing TVC will be part of this process. Only those vendors are being relocated who come in the encroachment area.”