Lindsay Pereira: What is a hawking policy anyway?

When asked by this newspaper about the number of legal hawkers in Bombay the BMC Commissioner cited a 2014 survey putting the number at 90000 These illegal ones are at Jogeshwari File picThis may come as a surprise but the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has something called a Town Vending Committee that supposedly looks after our citys hawking policy I was more amused by the fact that it had a hawking policy to begin with because I always assumed hawking was simply a question of bribing the right people for any spot one chose to encroach upon How else I often wondered did hawkers materialise as if by magic on our streetsAnd yet there is a hawking policy probably because it makes for good public relations After all the millions in taxes collected from us by the BMC need to be justified in some way and there are only so many committees it can form to sort out potholed roads and garbage collection The Town Vending Committee was reportedly born a few months ago and in keeping with the Street Vendors Act who knew the BMC finally agreed to give 40 per cent representation to hawkers in the committee It was supposed to do this years ago of course but didnt presumably because it was busy creating committees to figure out what the colour of streetlights at Marine Drive should be or the best places for designated Selfie SpotsSo to cut a long tale of apathy short the Committee elected representatives of hawkers through a lottery and unions none of us have ever heard of were given representation The process was conducted with complete transparency by which I mean no one knows who these people are what the Committee intends to do or what it has actually done since its formation in November 2017I empathise with hawkers to be honest because I cant imagine what life must be like at the mercy of government officials who care only about where the next bribe is coming from And yes as every man woman and child in Bombay knows the bribes exist How else can hawkers stand brazenly outside our railway stations block entrances to ticket booths take over subways meant for public use set up shop at any street corner they choose to and sell everything from fireworks to fried food without someone somewhere turning a blind eye in exchange for a cut of their profitsA month ago citizens and municipal councillors criticised the BMC for demarcating hawking zones in an arbitrary manner and the mysterious representatives of hawkers unions said norms put down in the Street Vendors Act of 2014 were not being followed Apparently committee members were not consulted by the BMC and there was no information on whether the 1660 emails and 368 letters it received from citizens had been taken into consideration In other words it set up a committee only to ignore the committees recommendationsWhen asked by this newspaper about the number of legal hawkers in Bombay the BMC Commissioner cited a 2014 survey putting the number at 90000 before adding that his organisation has yet to verify these hawkers define locations and mark pitches For a hawker this means four years of waiting for answers permission or a designated spot while fending off competition and continuing to pay a bribe in order to surviveThe BMC now intends to make special provisions for women hawkers as part of its initiative to make Bombay more gendersensitive No one knows what this means because its not as if the organisation considers gendersensitivity when to comes to other aspects of its functioning No one knows how these women hawkers are to be identified verified and allocated designated spots for hawking or how they will be protected from other hawkers let alone policy changes over the coming months Like much of what the BMC does it seems like just another initiative to tack onto a PowerPoint presentation as part of its public relations initiativesLets put aside Acts Committees and Policies for a minute and simply consider how hawkers on any street in our localities function How do they break rules with such nonchalance How do they fry food in the open How do they take over our pavements with impunity disappear during BMC raids well in advance and surface when the vans have gone How are they so familiar with a bureaucracy that goes out of its way to make everyone elses life so difficultWhen he isnt ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates