No. 127 3

Jhadu Pooja at Sewa NagarManushi’s Campaign for Cleansing Governance

Madhu Kishwar

In Issue No. 124 of MANUSHI we had published a report on the plight of street vendors in Delhi based on investigationscarried out by MANUSHI as well as the facts that emerged during a Lok Sunwayi (Public Hearing) of street vendorsorganized by MANUSHI on June 25, 2001. A similar exercise was carried out for Delhi’s cycle rickshaw pullers andoperators. The story of harassment, extortion and systematic violation of human and constitutional rights thatemerged out of this process, received some amount of press publicity. The Prime Minister himself took suo motonotice of the grievances of these two groups of urban self employed poor and a New Policy was drafted by the PMOto free street hawking and the rickshaw sector from the deadly stranglehold of the License-Quota-Raid Raj. In aletter dated August 23, 2001, the Lt. Governor of Delhi was given firm and clear instructions that the New Policyreform must seek to eliminate the scope for rent seeking and harassment by the licencing and enforcement officials.Far from implementing the New Policy with sincerity, the administration has used both overt and covert means tosabotage the New Policy.The salient features of the PM’s policy are as follows:

The existing restrictive system which provides for fixed and unrealistic quotas for the number of rickshaws andvendors which have a legal permit to operate in Delhi, must be scrapped forthwith.The metropolis may be divided into “green”, “amber” and “red” zones, signifying free access, fee basedaccess and prohibited access, respectively.Restrictions on street hawking/ cycle rickshaws may be specified in minimal terms.There must be an absolute prohibition on municipal and police authorities from impounding, destructionor seizure of rickshaws or goods and equipment of street vendors.Any person who wishes to be a street hawker or cycle rickshaw puller may do so by a simple act of registration.The registrations may be renewed (say, once a year) by a payment of a modest renewal fee. The sole purposeof the registration is to provide reliable identification. There must be no numerical limits on registrations.

However, following the announcement of the Prime Minister’s New Policy, confiscation of goods, rehdis and rick-shaws is being carried out with greater ferocity; “Clearance Operations” have not stopped. On October 2, 2001 theday celebrated as Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti, MNAM felt constrained to organize a massive aagrah pradarshan (massdemonstration) at the Lt. Governor’s office to press for the implementation of the New Policy. (Detailed report inIssue No.126.) That too failed to evoke a positive response from the city administration. Therefore, our battle to getthis New Policy to replace the existing laws and regulations continues on various fronts.

FOLLOW UP

4 MANUSHI

One of the excuses used bymunicipal authorities to carryout “Clearance Operations”

involving forcible removal of streethawkers and confiscation of their goodsis that vendors create urban chaos andsqualor, that they obstruct the smoothflow of pedestrians and traffic. In short,even though street hawkers provideinvaluable services for urban consumers,the government treats them as anunwanted nuisance and denies a legalstatus for their trade.

Our city administrations act on theassumption that if hawkers are given evena slight measure of security, they will startencroaching more and more on publicspaces and make governance impossible.In fact, it is the shortsighted governmentpolicies which are responsible for thesqualor and chaos typical of urban centresin “modern” India, rather than thepresence of hawkers.

Confiscating the goods of hawkersfor “encroaching” on roads andpavements is like legislating thatpedestrians will be arrested and put injail for not using pavements, without themunicipal administration providing anypavements. Since there are no legalspaces provided for hawkers, despite thegrowing and pressing demand for theirservices, they have no choice but to“encroach”. They are considered to beillegal everywhere. This illegal status ofhawkers is then used by the police andmunicipal authorities as a weapon ofextortion, harassment and humiliation.(For details see MANUSHI No 124, BribesBeatings and Blackmail: Lok Sunwayiof Delhi’s Street Vendors)

Data collected by MANUSHI on thebasis of interviews with streetvendors from dozens of hawkersmarkets of Delhi showed that thenearly five lakh hawkers estimated tobe working in Delhi are being forcedto pay at least Rs. 40 crores a monthby way of bribes in cash and kind tothe police and municipal officials.Much of this money could well reachthe municipal coffers by way of taxes.Instead it is lining the pockets ofcorrupt officials and anti-socialelements.

A good part of the chaos in urbanmarkets is also due to the fact thatthe local police and their touts do notallow market discipline to emergethrough self-regulation. Whereverand whenever hawkers have tried tobring order and discipline, the policeand their touts intervene to thwart allsuch efforts. For example, in a marketof West Delhi, we found that a groupof nearly 200 hawkers selling fruitand cooked food are well organizedand position themselves discreetly ona part of the pavement in a way thatthey do not cause any obstruction for

traffic. These people too have to payregular bribes but have acquired ameasure of discipline on account ofinternal cohesion and long years ofexperience in the trade.

However, some new entrants intothe occupation have been allowed bythe police to install their rehdis rightat the main chowk area which is a verybusy intersection of four major heavytraffic roads. Those who are willingto pay higher bribes to the police areallowed and encouraged to positionthemselves in prominent spaces, evenif it means causing genuineobstructions for other road users.Those who enjoy special patronage ofthe police or act as their touts, refuseto submit themselves to marketdiscipline. This is specially borne out

The chaos in urbanmarkets is due to the factthat the local police andtheir touts do not allow

market discipline toemerge throughself-regulation.

Along with a fresh newJhadu kept in the

center of a platformwere idols of LordGanesh, goddessesLakshmi, Saraswati

and Durga.

MNAM members applying tilak to the sacred Jhadu

No. 127 5

by MANUSHI’S experience of trying tobring self-regulation in Sewa Nagarmarket of South Delhi and develop itas a model market.

On December 19, 2001, the SewaNagar unit of Manushi Nagrik AdhikarManch, MNAM (Manushi Citizens’Rights Forum) began a new initiativewith an innovative ceremony namedJhadu Pooja (Worship of the CleaningBroom) in Sewa Nagar HawkerMarket. Along with a fresh new Jhadukept in the center of a platform erectedfor this purpose were idols of LordGanesh, goddesses Lakshmi, Saraswatiand Durga. This ceremony inaugurateda new phase in MNAM’s mobilizationof street vendors and resolve to freethem from the parasitic hold of thepolice, municipal authorities and othergovernment agencies that harass andfleece them.

Traditional poojas start withoffering of prayers to Lord Ganesh—who symbolises auspicious beginningsand is seen as a “remover of obstacles”— Vighnaharta or Vighneshwar. Butwe began ours with worship of theCleaning Broom because it representsMNAM’s resolve to work for cleanand healthy physical environment aswell as desire to cleanse the system ofgovernance in India which has becomesynonymous with corruption, sloth,inefficiency and tyranny.

Armed with that resolve we soughtthe blessings Lord Ganesh, theobstacle remover, and of Lakshmi, thegoddess of wealth who cannot beexpected to dwell in unclean andunhygienic environments. A well

maintained clean market is bound tobring more business to Sewa Nagarhawkers and enhance their incomes.We also prayed to the goddess ofwisdom and arts— Saraswati— tobless MNAM members with theforesight and astuteness to build theirinner organizational strength. Webelieve that self-regulation willstrengthen the inner unity of vendorswho might then be better able to resistextortion by the police and municipalemployees, thereby upping theirincomes substantially. But for that tohappen, they need the wisdom to avoidquarrels and conflicts betweenthemselves which are cleverly usedand manipulated by those who have astake in keeping them divided againsteach other and, therefore, easy toterrorise and fleece. Finally, we prayedto Mother Durga— the vanquisher ofevil— that she give us the strength andpower to combat the forces of evilthat engulf the lives and livelihoodsof street hawkers today.

Since the market has a number ofMuslim hawkers as well, the ceremonybegan with the reading of kalma—prayers offered by Muslims forinvoking divine blessings as per theirreligious traditions. Both Hindus andMuslims joined together in these

rituals and ceremonies without theslightest hesitation, united as theywere by the secular symbol and ritualinvolving the Cleaning Broom. Noneamong the Hindus objected to aBroom being treated as a more sacredand reverence worthy object than allthe gods and goddesses put together.

The idea of the Jhadu Pooja wasto drive home the message thatensuring cleanliness and hygiene ofour immediate, physical environmentare sacred duties of every citizen, thatthis task should not be looked uponwith disdain and handed over to lowlypaid sweepers, who are treated asuntouchables for performing this vitalservice for society.

Since the rest of society looksdown upon the task of cleaning, thesweepers too do not respect theiroccupation. This is an importantreason why there is so much filth andutter disregard for sanitary health inIndia. Hence, the importance ofrespecting the tasks of maintainingsanitation and hygiene, at least in ourown environment through our ownefforts, discipline and selforganization, rather than depend onthe highly inefficient and inadequateservices provided by municipal bodiesin India. In most markets in Delhi, the

The idea of the JhaduPooja was to drive home

the message that ensuringcleanliness and hygiene ofour immediate, physicalenvironment are sacredduties of every citizen...

A close-up of the worship ceremony of the Jhadu

6 MANUSHI

municipal sweepers who holdpermanent jobs and are highlyunionised also go around collectingbribes from street hawkers, withoutactually performing the task ofcleaning that they are employed for.(see box on page 10) Each hawkercleans the little spot of land that hestands on at the start of the day. Thesweepers simply come and take bribesfor not cleaning. If the money isrefused, they threaten to have thehawkers removed by complaining tothe Health Department of themunicipal body. No hawker daresinvite the wrath of the ‘humble’municipal sweeper because as apermanent job holder in the vastextortion racket set up by governmentemployees, he too has enoughnuisance value and clout to jeopardizethe livelihoods of the vulnerable streethawkers.

Under this dispensation, no matterhow much individual hawkers may tryto keep the particular spots they usefor their trade clean, there is no oneto ensure the overall sanitation andcleanliness of the market areas. If itweren’t for non-sarkari garbagepickers who take away a goodproportion of waste and sell it forrecycling, our cities would be buriedunder garbage since municipalauthorities show little inclination toperform their job with responsibility.

Therefore, MNAM emphasizesthe need for hawkers in each markettaking collective responsibility formaintaining cleanliness and hygienein their respective markets. Ourmembership form makes each hawkersign the oath that they will join in allattempts to keep their respectivemarkets clean and hygienic. However,we have found that wherever thehawkers show greater collectiveinitiative and responsibility in suchmatters, the police and municipalauthorities obstruct their efforts by

including at intersection points. Thosewho pay more to them are allowed toand even goaded to put their rehdisin front of the old established rehdisso as to promote internal conflicts andmake the place look chaotic. Thatgives the police and MCD additionalleverage to harass these vendors andissue threats of removal unless theypay up whatever amount is beingdemanded of them. Our attempts atbuilding a culture of self-discipline,respect for cleanliness andconsideration for other users of roadspace are sought to be thwarted bytouts using threats of violence andeviction. It is distressing that theseanti-social elements are confident ofpolice complicity while we are beingthreatened. Developing Sewa Nagar asa model market involves substantialinvestment of time, effort and money.If the authorities decide to swoopdown on this market and confiscatethe goods and rehdis as they are proneto do during “Clearance Operations”,this would lead to seriousdemoralization. MNAM will then notbe able to enthuse others intofollowing the Sewa Nagar model.Therefore, we approached the HighCourt for following reliefs:

Stay order on removal ofhawkers or confiscation of their goodsfrom Sewa Nagar Hawkers Marketand instructions to the MCD to assistMNAM in developing it as a rolemodel among markets in India byproviding the necessary infrastructure.

Direct the Delhi Vidyut and JalBoards to provide regular and legalelectricity and water connections forthese markets so that hawkers are notforced to pay exorbitant sums for illegalconnections and made to feel likethieves even though they are paying farmore than the well-off consumers whoare provided regular, legal connections.Currently each hawker is paying at least

cracking down on such markets withgreater ferocity.

We are hopeful that the plan todevelop Sewa Nagar hawker marketinto a model market for all of Delhiwill catalyse similar efforts in othermarkets of Delhi. Already, severalother markets have shown interest inbonding under similar discipline.

Efforts at Sewa NagarAs a start at Sewa Nagar, we picked

up the accumulated garbage in andaround the market. A committee ofeleven was elected to oversee the SelfRegulation Drive. We got anundertaking from all our members thatthey would do daily cleaning andmaintenance of the market themselves.On December 23, we held a ceremonyof drawing a Sanyam Rekha (Line ofSelf Discipline) in green paint afterconsensual agreement among amajority of hawkers that they wouldnot allow their rehdis or wares to crossthe Sanyam Rekha. Each hawker haspaid Rs. 500 for the initial corpusrequired to improve the sanitaryconditions in that area.

Seeking Court ProtectionHowever, as soon as we began this

process, our members began beingthreatened by touts and anti socialelements that they would have thepolice remove all those hawkers fromthe market who join up in this SelfRegulation Drive. These toutsencourage vendors to place theirrehdis right in the middle of the road,

We held a ceremony ofdrawing a Sanyam Rekha(Line of Self Discipline)after agreement amonghawkers that they wouldnot allow their rehdis or

wares to cross theSanyam Rekha.

No. 127 7

Provide similarprotection and civicamenities to otherhawkers’ marketsthat are willing toabide by the rigorousnorms of self-discipline and selfregulation set byMNAM.

A temporary staywas granted by theHigh Court againsteviction of SewaNagar hawkers uptoJanuary 18 but the

threats of removal and extortioncontinue.

A team of architects led by Prof.Anubha Chakravarty of the School ofPlanning and Architecture and Asmitais helping us redesign and upgradethe Sewa Nagar market. Prof. GeetamTiwari of the Transport Research andInjury Prevention Programme of theIndian Institute of Technology, Delhi,is also assisting us in this endeavour.We are in the process of working outdetailed plans, that include garbagerecycling, rational waste disposal aswell as upgradation of the rehdis usedby vendors and making shopping inthat area into an aesthetic experience.

Rs. 15 a day or Rs. 450 per month forusing one 200 watt bulb for about 3hours in the evening. In markets thatcome under MNAM discipline, weundertake to ensure that there will beno theft of electricity or tampering withofficial meters.

Directions to the SHO of SewaNagar and Lodhi Colony Police Stationsto protect our members and othervendors from violence and threats bytouts and to restrain them frompromoting chaos and disorder andcooperate with us in earmarking properparking space for motorised vehicles andcycle rickshaws so that there is a smoothflow of people and vehicles in the area.

Economists tell us that the processof economic liberalization wasinitiated in the decade of 1980’s withRajiv Gandhi and gatheredmomentum in the 1990’s underNarasimha Rao’s premiership. TheBJP led alliance is supposed to havegiven the process still greater impetus.The sure shot litmus test for thesuccess of economic reforms in anysector is whether or not the briberates have gone down for people

To illustrate from the experienceof a vibrant hawker market in SouthDelhi called Sewa Nagar: in the early1980’s, most vendors here were payingRs.30 a month to the police andRs.20 to MCD inspectors as “pro-tection money”. Some who earnedbetter were paying more, and manypaid Rs.2 a day rather than a fixedmonthly rate. By 1990, the bribe ratehad increased to Rs.300 a month withRs.200 going to the police and

Raids, Bribes and ConfiscationsA Report on the Sewa Nagar Hawkers Market, Delhi

working in that sector. As far as thestreet vendors and other such selfemployed groups are concerned, theextortion through needlessbureaucratic interventions becamefar more deadly during the 1990’s.The stranglehold of the License-Quota-Raid Raj has beenstrengthened in recent years evenwhile there is so much hype aboutdelicensing industry and de-bureaucratising our economy.

Each vendor has contributedRs.500 each towards this effort. Wehave already collected Rs.50,000 andwe hope to raise another Rs.30,000from Sewa Nagar hawkers. Most ofthe vendors are are cleaning up theplace themselves at least four times aday.

Appeal For SupportMANUSHI is committed to raising

additional funds required for thiseffort that includes paving,beautification and painting of wallsand greening the area. It is estimatedthat we will need nearly 5 lakhrupees. The first donation ofRs.10,001 towards the Sewa Nagerfund came from Dr. AnanthaNageswaran.

We solicit your support in thiseffort. Even small contributions willgo a long way in keeping themomentum going and our moralehigh. Equally important, we needvolunteers from Lodhi Estate andresidents of nearby colonies,especially Defence Colony whoregularly use this market to join inmonitoring this effort. The visiblevigilance by educated, middle andupper class people will also help keepthe police under check.

MNAM members removing garbage

8 MANUSHI

Rs.100 to the MCD. The HealthDepartment did its own collectionsfrom those vending cooked or semi-cooked foods. So did the drainagedepartment people who charge aseparate fee from those vendors locatednear the big Sewa Nagar nala (drain).By 1995, most vendors were beingfleeced of Rs.500 to Rs.1500 per monthdepending on the size of their business.During the 1990’s, the frequency ofmunicipal raids kept increasing,producing greater insecurity amongthese people. Our film—Licence-Quota-Raid Raj—A View from Below,captures some of the raids andconfiscations during the mid 90’s.

Consistent Economic WarRaids and Clearance Operations

take two forms: partial or totalremovals. Partial removal means theMCD or NDMC or Police come andforcibly confiscate the goods of a fewvendors and move on. These take placeon a regular basis. In areas likeConnaught Place, many vendors havetheir goods confiscated on an averageof about once in 8-10 days. A total“Clearance Operation” means theentire market is removed, includingany temporary structures that mayhave been constructed. There are times

when these street traders are allowedto set up shop within hours of the raid.However, there are times when it takesweeks or even months for the vendorsto re-establish themselves. Taking theSewa Nagar example again: a coupleof years ago, when Sewa Nagar marketwas bulldozed, most of the vendorsremained unemployed for about sixmonths. They were allowed to re-settleonly after a couple of lakhs weresiphoned off from them in a lump sumand the monthly bribe rate raised.Another major “Removal Operation”took place on April 12, 2001. In

between, there were numerous smallraids whereby each time a certainnumber of vendors were targeted forconfiscation of goods.

In December 2000, there weresome press reports that the Lt.Governor of Delhi had called a specialhigh powered meeting in which hehanded over the primary responsibilityof taking strict action against vendorsand other “illegal encroachers” onpublic land to the police to send themessage that the administration wasdead serious about clearing up the city.Carrying out “Clearance Operations”is normally the job of the municipalauthorities; they can call in the policeto assist them. This role reversal gaveadded powers to the police, whichcame to be used in the only way thepolice have perfected using them– tocollect bribes. In Sewa Nagar andother markets, vendors were discreetlyinformed in early January that therewere “strict orders from above” toremove all the hawkers from the cityas part of a “clean up operation.” Butthey were given to understand thatthey could be saved if each one agreedto pay up between Rs.1000 toRs.1500, in addition to the regularmonthly bribe they were paying.Nearly Rs.2 lakh extra were thus

Performing aarti to the ceremonial Jhadu

A board displaying regulation norms of MNAM membership.

No. 127 9

collected from the nearly 200 vendorsthat operate in Sewa Nagar market inthe month of January. However, theirreprieve was short lived. On April 12,the MCD and the police attacked thisarea with full force, confiscated thegoods and rehdis of some vendors whocould not run away in time andbulldozed the vending stalls out ofexistence. Several of them managed torun away and save their stuff frombeing destroyed. Anyone who resistedrisked being beaten up by the police.

Hostage to PoliticiansAfter the April 12 raid, no quick

settlement could be arrived at becausethe “Clearance Operation” got mixedwith party politics and also becauseseveral vendors resisted the sharpescalation being demanded in thebribe amount. After about four weeks,when the anxiety of the vendors turnedinto desperation, the police began toallow those few who were willing topay Rs.30 per day to set up their rehdis(push carts) again. These few alsohappened to be those who werebelieved to be loyal to the localCorporator, who has been elected fromthis same area for the last several years.

He had let it be openly known thathe would not allow all those vendors

who had failed to turn up for all hisparty rallies and were not confirmedvoters of his party to operate in SewaNagar market. Not that the uprootedvendors were confirmed supporters ofany rival party. They had been toseveral rallies and generally tend toobey the commands of the Corporatorof the ruling party in the hope ofgetting a small measure of protection.But they had missed out on a few ofhis party’s shows of strength. A fewalso happened to be supporters of therival political party. Attending rallies

usually means losing the day’sincome— not an easy proposition forthose live and earn from day to dayand do not have security of livelihood.It took five months of tireless effortsby MANUSHI before we could get thisgroup of vendors rehabilitated.

Myth of LegalityThe Corporation officials pretend

that during such “ClearanceOperations” they remove the “illegal”encroachers. The truth of the matteris that even those who have licensedstalls are not spared during such“Clean up Drives”. For example, thesolitary tehbazari (legal licence)holder in Sewa Nagar, Rajeshwar, wasalso forcibly removed every time therewas a Demolition Drive as the one thattook place on April 12, 2001 in SewaNagar. Rajeshwar sells readymadegarments for little children. He wasgiven a tehbazari in July 2000 aftergetting clearance from the ChopraCommittee set up by the SupremeCourt to give permits to those whopassed a tough eligibility criteria.Rajeshwar admits he succeeded ingetting this precious document, whilemuch older vendors were denied thatpermit, because he is an old worker

Jhadu Pooja

Voluntary Sanyam Rekha being drawn

10 MANUSHI

of the Rashtriya Swayam SewakSangh (RSS)— the parent body ofthe Bharatiya Janata Party. Thisaffiliation meant he had relativelyeasier access to the local MP andMLA, both of whom happen to beBJP men. They supported his casewith the administration in getting hima tehbazari. And yet, despite hispolitical connections, on April 122001, he too was driven out of themarket with violence when they wenton their demolition, loot anddestruction drive. At that moment, hedid not dare resist for fear of gettingmore beatings. In the evening, he triedputting back his rehdi in its usualspot. But the policemen guardingthat area showed him the danda(stick). He pleaded with them that hehad a valid permit through SupremeCourt orders. They said those papersmeant nothing to them. So next dayhe went to the Corporation office andasked for their intervention. The onlyadvice they had was: “Go show yourdocuments to the police.”

Grovelling and PetitioningHe returned to Sewa Nagar and

again pleaded with the concernedBeat Officer as well as the Sub-Inspector of the thana (policestation). They told him he had to goand get a written order from theDeputy Commissioner before theywould allow him to resume his trade.So Rajeshwar began another roundof pleading and petitioning in variousgovernment offices. He went and metthe Administrative Officer who toldhim: “What more can I write, afterhaving issued you a tehbazari? If thepolice does not honour a permitissued by the Corporation at thebehest of the Supreme Court, whatguarantee is there that they willhonour any other piece of paper weissue you?” His final word of advicewas to use the one and only code that

Blackmailed Even by Sarkari SweepersFood Sellers: Special Targets

Hawkers who sell cooked food are among the most vulnerable toextortion and blackmail. Since they carry cooking equipment as wellas heavy vessels for storing food, they are not able to run away fastwhen the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) vehicles come forremoval and confiscation of their goods and rehdis (push carts). TheMCD Health Inspectors are a particularly nasty source of harassmentfor the food hawkers. Under the pretext of checking “health hazards”posed by street foods, they collect far heftier bribes than demandedfrom the other hawkers. These health inspectors do not even make apretense of checking food quality or enforce necessary measures forpublic hygiene. All they do is to come and collect bribes and keepthe heat on by carrying out frequent confiscation of rehdis. The terrorunder which these hawkers operate can be gauged by the followingexample:

Anil Kumar sells chhole pathure near Janakpuri. Two pathurasand a plate of chanas with pickle is sold by him for a mere Rs.5. Healong with his two helpers starts his day at 4 a.m. when they startcooking for the day. By 8 a.m. they are ready to provide food to theworking poor living in nearby bastis who have no time or wherewithalto cook before they go to work. On an average, Anil works nearly 16hours a day. The bribes he has to pay are as follows:

• Police : Rs. 1000 per month• MCD health Inspector : Rs. 400 per month

• MCD Inspector : Rs. 200 per month

• Another unnamed Govt official : Rs. 100 per month

• MCD sweeper : Rs. 60 per month/Rs.2 a day

Total : Rs.1760

The helplessness and vulnerability of our street hawkers is evidentfrom the fact that the ‘humble’ government sweeper also comes andbosses over them and does not condescend to do any cleaning. Mostvendors themselves clean up the place they use. The sweeper collectsthe money as his ‘cut’ just as his senior officers do.

But even after paying a monthly cash bribe of Rs.1760 a monthAnil, like others in his trade, is not safe from harassment andconfiscation. When I met him in early December, 2001, he told methat so afraid is he of MCD raids and losing his rehdis and cookingequipment, that these days he works only between 8 a.m. to 12 noonwhen there is less likelihood of raid and confiscation. Thus he isprevented from realizing his full economic potential.

No. 127 11

the police and other governmentfunctionaries understand: “Look whydo you request and plead with them?Give them whatever amount—Rs.500 or Rs.1000— that they askof you.”

Rajeshwar says he tried that aswell. And yet, it didn’t work. Hethen went to the local MLA whointervened on his behalf and got theDeputy Commissioner (DC) to writea special letter asking the police tolet him carry on with his trade fromhis assigned place. It took 3-4 moredays of grovelling and bribing beforethe police consented on May 9. Eventhough the local thana had to yieldto the DCs order, they did not failto let him know in clear terms thathe dare not forget their specialpowers. The Beat Officer of SewaNagar told him: “This time aroundyou got the DC to give you thisrecommendation letter. But do notforget that the police have recourseto any number of laws whichempower us to starve you to death(hum tumhein dhoop mein sukhadenge).” Thus, Rajeshwar not onlylost 28 days of earnings due to themalafide action of the police evenby their own vicious and un-constitutional laws, but also had to

Model Market and Clean Governance FundI would like to contribute Rs................................towards MANUSHI’S campaign to developmodel markets and strengthen the organisation of street vendors towards self-regulationand cleansing of governance in Delhi.

Name:....................................................................................Address:...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................You may send your cheque/draft/M.O/cash payable to:

Manushi Trust, C1/3, Sangam Estate, No.1 Under Hill Road, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054.Donations to Manushi Trust are exempted u/s 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

spend lots of money as he wentappealing from one authority figureto another. Despite all his politicalconnections that come from being anold member of a close knit politicalfamily like the RSS which is part ofthe ruling establishment today,Rajeshwar feels totally helplessbefore the tyranny of the police, evenwhen they are acting in violation oftheir own mandate and laws. Hesays: “In India, the police are ableto run amok. There are no restraintson their powers. If they want, theycan declare a rope to be a serpentand vice versa. They do exactly whatpleases them. They take awaywithout payment whatever goodsthey want from our rehdis saying‘we are staff people’. They thinktheir uniform gives them immunity torob us in open daylight.” Despite hissupposedly legal status, Rajeshwartoo is forced to part with Rs.500 amonth (Rs.300 to the police, Rs.200to MCD) as “protection money” apartfrom additional extortion in kind andextra money given on festivals andother occasions. In January, he toohad paid the additional Rs.1000collected from every vendor, underthe pretense of saving them frombeing thrown out of that area under

“orders from above.” Notsurprisingly, he too has joinedMNAM with enthusiasm.

Hawkers are not the only ones tobe adversely affected by the“Clearance Operation”. Consumersalso suffer, though very few realizethe complementarity of interests withthat of hawkers. I remember distinctlyits effect of prices in the area. OnApril 10, I had purchased musambis(sweet lime) at Rs.30 per dozen andpomegranate at Rs.25 a kg from SewaNagar. On April 14, when I went tothe area to buy fruits, unaware factthat the whole market had been wipedout two days earlier, I found only onehawker selling fruit. He demandedRs.60 for a dozen sweet lime andRs.55 for a kilo of pomegranate. Theprices in neighbouring DefenceColony were no less high.

If removal of hawkers from onesmall market can produce such adramatic increase in prices in thatarea, one can well imagine whatwould be the impact on prices andproduction, if the entire network ofdistribution of goods established byhawkers were to be eliminated byremoving all the hawkers from urbancenters on account of their “illegal”status.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -