For the first time, over 32,000 street vendors are participating in an election to choose their representatives for the Town Vending Committee (TVC) on Thursday. This election will allow street vendors to have a voice in policymaking and decision-making processes.
The TVC will consist of one central committee and seven zonal committees, each made up of 20 members. Out of these, 12 members will be nominated, while the remaining eight will be elected representatives of the hawkers. These representatives are chosen through an election process.
According to the BMC, there were initially 10,388 licensed hawkers from the 1970s. In 2016, when BMC conducted a survey, they identified and distributed forms to 128,000 hawkers, of which 99,435 submitted applications with the required documents. Due to the state government making domicile certificates mandatory, only 15,361 hawkers were deemed eligible in 2019.
Following the relaxation of the domicile rule, the number of eligible hawkers has risen to 22,027. Currently, there are a total of 32,415 registered street vendor voters under BMC's jurisdiction.
Although the act was passed in 2014, the elections for hawkers' representatives in the TVC are being held in 2024, marking an eight-year delay.
Despite this progress, some street vendor unions remain opposed to the election, citing poor representation of hawkers. They argue that the actual number of hawkers is much higher, yet only 32,000 are eligible to vote. They claim that the actual number of hawkers is around 3 lakh. The Maharashtra Hawkers Union even approached the Supreme Court, which directed that the results be withheld. Nevertheless, the election will proceed as scheduled, and the BMC will have the opportunity to present its case.