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ASIAN REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON STREET VENDORS HELD IN INDIA
by Pat Horn

StreetNet’s workshop for the Asia region was held from 10th–12th February 2002, at Bodh Gaya in India. The workshop aims were:

  • to share experiences of street vendors in the region and to hear about the experiences of street vendors in other regions; 
  • to share experiences about how the problems of street vendors have been overcome through organisation, and share information about how other organisations (in other regions) work;
  • to make recommendations from the region about how to structure StreetNet as the international alliance of street vendors; 
  • to make plans for building national alliances of street vendors (or any other form of national co-ordination) in Asian countries between the workshop and the international launch of StreetNet in November 2002.

Participants came from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Korea, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the following parts of India: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, Mangalore, Manipur, Mumbai and Pune. Members of the Bodh Gaya Footpath Shopkeepers’ Union also heard about our workshop, and 19 of their members came to find out about StreetNet and introduce themselves and their problems (ie of being evicted from their places on the street every time important dignitaries – such as the Dalai Lama – come to Bodh Gaya).

As with the Latin American regional workshop, held in Peru last year, the problems reported by street vendors in all the countries were found to be very similar:  harassment by municipal authorities; regular evictions from selling sites; confiscation of goods by police and bribery and harassment by police, mafia and gundas - causing fragmentation and preventing unity between street vendors.  Street vendors pay fees for the right to sell, but are still regularly removed.

The discussions about StreetNet’s structures came up with the following consensus:

  • StreetNet should be an organisation of national alliances and city alliances; the structure should be inclusive, and therefore not be too tight;
  •  if there were more than one national alliance in a country, StreetNet should admit both, but strongly encourage them to merge into one powerful national alliance;
  • StreetNet’s full members should be membership-based organisations of street vendors (whether unions, associations, co-ops or whatever) who keep a register of members, whose members are dues-paying members, which can be subject to verification;
  • NGOs should be able to be associate members of StreetNet (not full members); a limited number of associate members should be able to be Executive members (eg a 20% limit) – however there was not complete consensus on this and it needed further discussion;
  • there was some discussion about having a principle of proportional representation enshrined in the constitution, but it was not resolved how this could work in an international organisation whose members come from countries which are not the same.

It was recognised that there are class differences between street and market vendors, but no agreement on what causes these and no recommendations as to how to deal with these. There was a general feeling that StreetNet should focus on the lower income-earning, more vulnerable vendors and hawkers. It was recommended that StreetNet should adopt a quota to ensure that at least 50% of its Executive committee are women, and also facilitate leadership training for women. Gender-sensitisation programmes will need to be run, and member organisations of StreetNet should be encouraged to ensure that they also take steps to encourage significant proportions of women leadership. Women’s leadership qualities need to be recognised.

The workshop felt that StreetNet should have no party-political affiliation, and should not directly support or promote any political party that any of its affiliate organisations may support.  However, individuals and member organisations of StreetNet may have party-political affiliation and StreetNet should not exclude them on these grounds. There should be no hidden political agendas in StreetNet. Further, it was felt that StreetNet should not identify permanent enemies (such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank, etc) but work with all institutions who show themselves to be working in favour of StreetNet’s aims and objectives,  ie StreetNet’s working alliances should be issue-based. 

StreetNet should aim to become financially self-sufficient, for the sake of accountability and commitment of member organisations, who should pay affiliation fees. Other means of fundraising to be investigated should include:

  • international trade between street vendors’ projects in different countries;
  • savings and credit initiatives;
  • fundraising events (such as cultural events, etc)

Plans were prepared for the period leading up to the international launch of StreetNet, for building national alliances of street vendors in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It was further agreed by the whole workshop to take up an international campaign to support the struggle of the street vendors of Korea against being evicted during the upcoming FIFA World Cup in May/June 2002.

A successful policy dialogue was held on Wednesday 13th February. The dialogue was addressed by the Under-Secretary in the Indian national Ministry of Urban Development and member of the Task Force on the Informal Sector, the Deputy Mayor of Surat in Gujarat state, Deputy Administrator of Patna, and the Labour Commissioner of Bihar state. Participants from the workshop from China, Korea and the Philippines also addressed the meeting. There was also very vigorous debate and participation from the Indian participants, who fully used the opportunity to challenge their government officials on what is happening to street vendors.

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