Why Mumbai has turned against its hawkers

Pedestrians barely have any space to walk on Hill Road, Bandra. Pic/Shadab Khan

Footpaths for us? My foot!," said a Dadar resident, encapsulating pedestrians' frustration at the lack of space for walking in the city. If pavements do not exist or are uneven on many stretches, the ones existing are occupied by hawkers, sparking daily confrontations. While citizens accuse roadside vendors of forcing them to walk on roads, urban planners say roadside vendors are a part of the city's economy and a robust hawkers' policy will strike a balance between both sides.

Suresh Lad, who met with an accident while walking outside Borivli station in May. Pic/Anurag Ahire

As part of its series ‘Nowhere to Go', mid-day visited a few busy pockets in the city and found that though the places have pavements, pedestrians barely have access to these sidewalks.

All occupied

One of the busiest suburbs in the city, thousands of people struggle to cross the SV Road on the west side to access the Borivali station daily. The station area has a wholesale vegetable and fruit market in the early mornings. Once operations of this market are done for the day, hawkers take over the area. There is a subway and a skywalk outside the station but they are favourite spots of people doing drugs, and beggars.

"Show me a footpath in Borivali that is free for a walk. BMC spends crores of taxpayers' money on repairing and increasing the width of roads, but all the roads are occupied by hawkers," said Borivli resident Suresh Lad.

Scene outside Borivli station on the west side which is a ‘no hawker' zone. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Lad said traffic cops ask hawkers to move to the pavements while BMC officials tell them to spill onto the roads. "In the end, they occupy both roads as well as footpaths, forcing pedestrians to walk in the middle of the road amid speeding vehicles. The BMC put railings on footpaths to keep away hawkers, but it makes the footpath even more congested," he said.

Lad said he has had two encounters with speeding vehicles so far, including one in May. "I was walking avoiding hawkers selling garments and my foot was run over by an autorickshaw. Autos menace is another issue but no one has the time to look at it," said Lad.

Anil Vora, who is fighting illegal hawkers in his neighbourhood in Kandivli West, said, "They [pavements] are built for hawkers only and not for pedestrians. Everyone, BMC, police and citizens, knows that these all are illegal hawkers, yet there has been no action despite several complaints over the years." Vora added, "Not just footpaths, even bus stops are occupied by hawkers and bus passengers have to stand on roads as they wait for buses. It occurred in front of the Borivali police station and court."

Parking spills onto sidewalks

Known for its fashion market, the footpaths on Hill Road, Bandra teem with vendors. In some places, vehicles have been parked on the pavements. The worrying part is that many locals and activists have been assaulted for complaining about footpath encroachment.

"I can understand vegetable or fruit stalls in localised areas, but these shops are for clothes, shoes and jewellery and people from all over the city come here. BMC has to make some provisions for them in nearby areas. If people come from Dahisar to Goregaon to shop here, they can go to any nearby spots also," said activist Vidya Vaidya.

Locals say no action has been taken despite repeated complaints about roadside vendors on Hill Road, Bandra. Pic/Shadab Khan

She said Hill Road has a parking plaza, but few use it. "We try to avoid Hill Road but our utility services like banks, and medical shops are on that road. So we make plans like visiting the shops at 9 in the morning so that the road is empty, but at that time the bank is closed. Then we think of going there at 10 am, but the road becomes busy by the time we return. It is so chaotic. We filed many complaints with the police and BMC, but nothing happened. BMC says it is a police matter, while cops ask us if they are there to control crime or hawkers. In the end, there is no one to solve the issue."

Rohington Polishwala, a resident of Hill Road, said, "Everybody knows that there is a nexus between hawkers and authorities. BMC says they can give a van till 7 pm only and we should go to the police. The police say this is the responsibility of the BMC. We cannot go on a morning walk because of the mess left behind by hawkers."

"We were attacked by hawkers in 2020 and when we went to the police station they didn't even take an NC. We are fed up with the increasing nuisance and I try not to stay in Bandra on Saturdays and Sundays. Sometimes we dial 100. Police come and do a little action here and there but nobody really bothers. We tried to approach higher authorities but it had no long-term effect," he said.

Hawkers are not always the villains

Town planners also stress the need for creating space for hawkers so that footpaths remain free for pedestrians. "Hawkers are an integral part of our city economy. They come in the way of walkers on pavements because of the government's failure in planning to take all existing realities into account," said P K Das, a renowned town planner. He said inclusive and comprehensive planning of cities is important, "rather much needed".

Dayashankar Singh, founder of Azad Hawkers Union, said, "Those hawkers who are not involved in any corruption with the local administration occupy limited space but those who are ‘close' to officials spread their business. It's a fact. Had the BMC implemented the hawkers' policy and allotted space to licensee hawkers, it could have easily taken action against the illegal ones."

Asheesh Sharma, additional municipal commissioner, said, "Urban Development Dept. has given approval for including corporators in the town vending committee and we have started the process of implementing the town vending act."

Where's the road here?

One can barely see the road, leave alone footpaths, near Dadar station. Local resident Paresh Kochrekar said, "Everybody knows about it but no one takes action. Footpaths were gone many years ago, now the whole road at Kabutarkhana is captured by hawkers. The stretch is less than 100 metres but you need at least 10 minutes to cross it, that too not before getting pushed by others."

Dadar man Paresh Kochrekar says it takes over 10 mins to walk 100 metres at Kabutarkhana. Pic/Ashish Raje

Worli resident Sanjeev Bhandari says the station road area is the most difficult stretch to walk. "Not just hawkers, taxis and buses also ply on this road. If somebody has an emergency, he cannot get out of the crowd even after 10-15 minutes. If you walk from the Suvidha shop to the flower market parallel to the flyover, you will feel suffocated, and your BP will surely shoot up. Peak hours are even more severe. People literally fall on one another and many stampede-like incidents have occurred in this area," said Bhandari.

However, Bhandari has some compassion for hawkers. "If these people get space near the station like a hawkers' plaza, customers will obviously go to the plaza. These hawkers are doing business to earn their livelihoods. If we as a society and the government cannot provide them with livelihoods, then how can we just shoo them away?"

Hawkers' Policy hangs fire

After the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act was passed in 2014 and following a Supreme Court order, the BMC distributed 1,28,443 forms to hawkers in 2016. While 99,435 hawkers submitted their forms, 15,361 were found to be eligible in 2020 apart from 15,000 licensed vendors in the city. BMC marked 85,891 pitches across Mumbai, it dropped to 30,830 after citizens objected. The process then stopped. Following corporators' demand in October 2020 that they be made members of zonal level Town Vending Committees. The BMC sought clarity from the urban development department.

30,830
No. of hawker pitches identified by BMC