Vexing Issue Of Vendors

These days many of the streets of Kathmandu have been cleared of street vendors from the footpaths, facilitating the unhindered movements of pedestrians. The campaign to remove the street vendors has gained momentum after the installation of new leadership at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC).  Newly elected KMC Mayor Balendra Shah has rightly said that footpaths are solely for passers-by and must not be encroached upon for business purpose. He has listed the removal of street vendors from the roadsides as one of his achievements of his 100-day in office. No doubt, the streets should be clean, clear and unhindered. Any activity that obstructs the smooth movements of passers-by and infringes upon the roadside must be discouraged to enhance the image of capital city. The KMC has earned kudos from the city dwellers for clearing the footpaths but thousands of street vendors who were ousted from the pavements are complaining that the Metropolitan officials robbed them of their right to make a living. 

Seen from humanitarian perspective, their arguments sound logical. Some street vendors whom this daily talked to have shared that they came to streets with minimum goods to sell for they are unable to set up and run big shops and businesses. Chairperson of Nepal Union of Street Traders (NEST) Maya Gurung said that poverty forced them to be street vendors and they chose this business to pay school fees of their children, house rent and manage two-meal a day. According to the NEST, around 50,000 street vendors are in the Kathmandu Valley and run their footpath business to support around 200,000 family members. They are facing a double whammy: on one hand, the KMC’s cops chase them away from the footpaths and on the other their goods  are confiscated, forcing them to lose a significant amount of their savings that they invested in their business. 

Although the security personnel shoo them out of the streets, they are still selling their goods dodging the prying eyes of the metropolitan police personnel. As news report mentions, nowadays vendors bring clothes in big polythene bags and sell them watchfully so that city cops will not swoop down on them suddenly. Earlier they used to sell their goods by placing tarpaulins on the footpaths during the evening. During the festival season, they make good income as the streets are filled with many shoppers. It is a legal question whether or not they have right to sell goods from the streets but the growing number of vendors in the Kathmandu Valley and other cities point to a bitter trend– increase in the number of urban poor with the fast urbanisation in many parts of country.

A World Bank report unveiled in 2018, states that around 49.30 per cent city population of Nepal lives in slums. There has been increased trend of people migrating from rural areas to the cities in search of better livelihood opportunities but they just morph into the urban poor for lack of adequate opportunity in the cities. As a result, they have been deprived of basic facilities such as health services, quality education, employment and housing. The rising number of street vendors is the product of faulty development policy so there is the need for the pragmatic approach to solve the problem of street vendors. One option is to fix certain locations where vendors can run their business at fixed time but they must not be allowed to occupy these places permanently.