OPERATION SUNSHINE: A BLOT ON  THE LIVES OF CALCUTTA HAWKERS

By Arbind Singh

In the dead of night on the 24 November 1996, hundreds of members of the Left Front and Police Corps descended on innocent hawkers in Calcutta.  The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) badges they wore, signified their collusion in Operation Sunshine  a state government initiative to “clean up” the streets of  Calcutta through the forced and violent removal of street vendors.  About 1640 stalls were ransacked, looted, set  on fire and razed to the ground. 102 hawkers were arrested.

Members of the press had been invited  by the state government to report on the operation.  They were guided to select spots where they witnessed the indiscriminate assaults on hawkers and their wailing dependants. Their reports however, focused on the state government’s statement that the operation was a “success.”

Critics described Operation Sunshine as an attack  against economic development and anti-people.  They pointed out that the 191 000 hawkers in Calcutta continue to play a significant role in the economic and overall development of society.  Estimates of the total annual contribution hawkers in Calcutta make to the economy is fixed at about 3000 crores.

It was further stated that the government had not given any thought to the plight and future of evicted hawkers.  There is no comprehensive government rehabilitation policy for them.  Ironically,  it appeared that persons responsible for the violent programme of attacks on hawkers over  three years, were once active campaigners for peoples  rights to work and a livelihood.

The attacks have also been described as a “counter insurgency” offensive on the achievements of the hawkers.  Such achievements  include the construction of the Maiden Market through the efforts of Dr BC Roy and the staying of the eviction of hawkers when the Sealdah Flyover was being constructed.  In 1983, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly established a committee under the chairmanship of Mr Anil Mukherjee to conduct a study into all the districts of West Bengal.  While this committee made hawking in certain areas a legal non-bailable offence, it concurrently recommended developing new avenues of employment in rural areas for hawkers, demarcation of hawking zones, alternative accommodation for those who had been evicted, and the creation of new markets in keeping with an increasing population.  Sadly, the pattern that has emerged is that negative recommendations are being implemented while the positive ones have not seen the light of the day.

As the state government continues to dilly dally over their fate, the menace of eviction looms large over the lives of the vast numbers of hawkers in Greater Calcutta.  More so since November 1997 when the West Bengal Legislative Assembly passed the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Act which makes vending a cognizable and non-bailable offence.