No time like present to deal with hawker problem

There are rumbles about how our streets are going to be cleared of illegal hawkers. The picture being painted is of streets and, more importantly, pavements clear of vendors

For a few days now, there has been a steady trickle of reports on how the court has taken cognisance of the hawker issue.

There are rumbles about how our streets are going to be cleared of illegal hawkers. The picture being painted is of streets and, more importantly, pavements clear of vendors. 

The whole scenario seems exciting and at this juncture even too good to be true. Clean streets, legal hawkers organised into plazas or zones, pavements cleared for people, illegal hawkers out of the picture altogether... Considering how entrenched this problem is in the city, this image seems utopian.

Whatever your belief, now more than ever it is time to take on the hawker problem, and come to a solution. Hawker leaders who are wary of legal and so-called ‘illegal’ lists have to sit together with local leaders and finally come to some sort of understanding. Legal hawkers also need to acknowledge that some of them are ‘subletting’ the hawking space to others. This itself is illegal and their legal status needs to be cancelled.

Shopkeepers, especially near stations and markets, have suffered hugely. Footfalls have been adversely affected for them as their shops are invisible. Even if invisible, they may be inaccessible. In a city where time is money, the would-be customer may not make the effort to access the shop by skirting numerous hawkers. The buyer will simply walk away. This means one more person lost for the shopkeeper. This is so unfair but unfortunately, it has been continuing for years together.

Now is the time to address this and take remedial action. The constant tug ‘n’ pull between citizen and hawker, shopkeeper and hawker, authorities and hawkers needs a viable, sustainable and just end. Let us begin working on that, as this is one of the factors that can engulf the city and turn it into a tinderbox. 

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