The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending)Act, 2014 mandates creating a Town Vending Committee(TVC) as per its section 22. Further, Town Vending Committees are constituted according to the rules formulated by the respective states based on the parent Act. The implementation of the same on the ground is carried out by the respective local authorities which in case of Kerala are Municipal corporations and Municipalities who carry out the urban governance in the state of Kerala. TVC will be responsible for identifying the street vendors, issuing the vending certificates and keeping the record of street vendors under its jurisdiction.
The TVC will be responsible for conducting timely meetings and framing rules and regulations for its jurisdiction to carry out the business and discharge its functions. The local authority will provide the office and other infrastructural facilities for the committee will provide the office and other infrastructural facilities for the committee will provide the office and other infrastructural facilities for the committee will provide the office and other infrastructural facilities for the committee, which in Kerala’s context is either Municipal corporations or the Municipalities. The committee will prepare a vending plan in consultation with the planning authority of the town and the local authority for adequately carrying out the vending activity.
Although it has been 8 years since the Act's constitution, several states have yet to carry out street vendor surveys and form town vending committees. Town Vending Committees are essential in implementing the Act as it regularises and brings the different governing bodies together. However the lack of rigour in forming TVC in different municipalities and the slow pace in which elections are announced can affect the vendors and those in the administrations.
According to the Kerala State rules, the TVC is responsible for conducting meetings, discussions and framing decisions and an advisor who will be appointed will be giving recommendations on how to frame policies and address concerns from all parties. The function of the TVC should be rigorous and unbiased as it is the approving and representing body when it comes to street vending in the particular municipality. From research, it was inferred that municipalities in Kerala have not been swift enough in forming TVCs or for those already formed, to conduct elections.
There should also be a Provisional Town Vending Committee in each local authority until the survey of street vendors is completed and election of the representatives of street vendors is held based on such survey. The state government could be given the authority to nominate all the members of the Town Vending Committee of various categories mentioned in the Act for this purpose.
The street vending committee needs strengthening and empowerment. They shall conduct meetings periodically with the concerned stakeholders and the government officials. The TVC shall enjoy the confidence of the stakeholders for successfully implementing the act.
In each local authority a Town Vending Committee shall be constituted by the government with the municipal secretary as the committee's chairperson. The term of the Town Vending Committee will remain for five years, and following shall be the constitution of the Town vending committee in each local authority area:
While constituting the TVC it should also be considered that the representatives from NGOs/ Community Based Organisations shall not be less than 10% of the total members and the members representing the street vendors not less than 40%. One third of the street vendors' members shall be from women vendors. Due representation shall be given to SC, ST, OBC, minorities and persons with disabilities from amongst the members representing street vendors.
The representatives of the street vending community in the TVC are to be democratically elected by the street vendors as per the rules prescribed by the respective states. The responsibility to conduct these elections vest with the respective local authorities. The local authority should announce its intention to conduct the elections through a notification. The notification should contain the number of members elected from the street vendors, seats reserved for scheduled castes, other backward classes, women, persons with disabilities, minorities or any other specified categories. The local authority is also required to appoint a returning officer for conducting the elections. The resolution has to be circulated among the street vendors engaged in street vending in the area under the jurisdiction of the respective TVCs. The notice may be circulated in any of the following manners:
Fig 3 : Structure of Town Vending Committee
Fig 4: Nomination form for election of members of TVC
The TVC or the local authority holds the responsibility to keep the up to date register of the street vendors and provide it to the returning officer as per the requirement, before the elections. The nomination for the election, the ballot paper used for the elections and other such procedures concerning the election process are to be submitted in forms specified as per the Kerala Street Vending Rules. Once the election process is over, the local authority should notify the constitution of a town vending committee and the term of a TVC as per section 22 of the act unless dissolved before the term will be 5 years.
The constitution of the town vending committee ensures participation of different stakeholders- street vendors, executive authority, like the Municipal commissioner, other stakeholders like non governmental organisations, residential welfare organisations, and local authority. Existing research, like the India Development Report8 , points at the attitudinal problems resulting from excess representatives from local authorities. Posts like that of the health officer in the TVC seem irrelevant to the goal of regulating town vending, which is the primary purpose of the constitution of such committees. The composition of TVC is dominated by officials and the representation of beneficiary communities i.e street vendors is just 40 percent of total composition. It is recommended that a higher proportion upto 50 or 60 percent of street vendors to be represented in the decision making body , TVC for better persuasiveness in the decisions affecting them.
There is also a need to integrate and employ staff that aids the capacity building of the TVC, who help the members and the committee fulfill the effective execution of the Street vending Act in its letter and spirit. It was observed by the courts that the lack of experts in the TVC hinders the implementation and integration of the goals of the Street Vending Act, 2014 with municipal schemes. Employing experts and training members on optimal allocation of vending spaces and other challenges should be exercised.
It was also found that in few Municipalities, elections to TVC do not happen the right way. Ideally after the survey of vendors is done, a call for nomination should be done and vendors should be elected democratically. However, in some cases, union representatives members who are union representatives form a part of the TVC and this does not happen through a free and fair election system.
8 - Unni, Aravind and Chauhan, Shalaka; It’s time to step up for street vendors’ rights; 2022; idronline.org
The duties and responsibilities of the TVC include the following:
Fig 5: Form ‘4’ Record of Registered Street Vendors
Town vending committees are staffed with influential executives like administrative officers and a lot of human resources that are part of government machinery. Overburdening staff who are not equipped to deal with the particular challenges about policy making concerning street vending, does not serve any purpose and result in the development of a lackadaisical attitude in the TVC. This is harmful and arrests the development of effective execution of the policy. TVCs should also try to publish annual reports relating to the vending information on the government website in the NULM section.
TVCs are required to conduct frequent meetings, but the effectiveness of such meetings need to be checked too. Dividing the legislation's scope to achievable goals that can be tracked and followed up goes a long way in ensuring effectiveness. Members can also be incentivised to attend meetings and follow up on duties by increasing the allowance from Rs.100, thus making them a practical part of the process.
The TVC must survey to bring out the voter’s list. Another provision says that TVC must elect the 40% representatives from the street vendors community by conducting elections based on voter’s list. An incongruence in the provisions causes a ‘chicken-and-egg” dilemma.
Given the "chicken-and-egg" dilemma in which TVC must develop a voter list for a Town Vending Committee election, the MHUPA must clarify its position. It would be preferable if it could issue guidelines to close this gap.
Without a TVC, the remaining 60% of the Town Vending Committee might be formed from other stakeholders. As its initial responsibility, this partial Town Vending Committee can compile a voter list and hold elections. Once this is completed, the entire new TVC may work together to improve the status of Vendors.
The constitution of the town vending committees is only partly democratised. 60% of the members are part of the TVC by indirect means i.e, nomination and official capacity. Members who form the ‘expert’ segment of the TVC are nominated mainly by the state government. This process of selecting and finalising nominees must be suitably ratified and approved by the most prominent stakeholders- the street vendors.
The incentive and interest of the vendors to be part of the process need to be improved by increasing the awareness and sensitising them about decentralised decision making. Incentivisation can be made possible by increasing allowances and displaying concrete benefits of the law, like safe vending spaces and better infrastructure for street vending. It could help compensate for the loss of business due to engagement in TVCs. The issues with the loss of stake, like how they can be harassed and denied the right to their vending space should be rightly stressed on and solutions offered, in terms of participation in a transparent committee constitution and working process.
The Kerala State Rules 2018 for street vending mentions the removal of members from TVC but fails to mention how a vacant post after removal of a member would be filled in. There needs to be a proper and fair procedure mentioned on how this would be done.
The parliamentary panel, headed by Jagdambika Pal in 2021, opined that there is a lack of proper mechanism to monitor the conduct of TVC meetings about the minimum number of meetings, advance intimation of schedule of the meeting and uploading of minutes on the official website of urban local bodies among others.
The members of the TVCs are also not regular to the meetings and this needs to be dealt with strictly. Good attendance of the members needs to be maintained. There needs to be a warning given if the member misses two consecutive meetings for invalid reasons.
Fig 6: Form ‘5’ Appeal to the local authority against the decision of the Town Vending Committee
Every local authority can also take a step to constitute an Appellate Committee consisting of Chairperson and two other local body members as decided in the general body meeting to work as appellate authority to hear the appeal. This is in practice in states like Nagaland and would make the process for appeal much easier for the vendor. has to be addressed under the bye-laws drafted by the local governments. Another challenge while constituting an appeal committee at the local level is the determination of the composition of the committee. As the appeal is against the decision of TVC and municipal secretary being the chairperson of TVC as per Kerala Rules, the appeal committee should aptly be headed by an authority superior to the Municipal Secretary. To avoid conflicts, it is better to have an appeal committee at the district level against the decision of TVC with members from local government.
To deal with policy issues and respond to changing situations, a Town Vending Committee may appoint any suitable person of repute with adequate knowledge and experience in the field as an expert to obtain technical or professional advice on matters relating to street vendors, subject to the provisions of the Act.
There needs to be more clarity on how the town vending committee will appoint the person as an advisor or consultant to address and deal with the policy concerns of Street vending and vending plans. The word “suitable” is quite vague and no specific eligibility criteria are mentioned. This provision can lead to bias in this process because the position is not a permanent post nor is it an elected representative. Given the clause that the person should be an expert in the area of Street vending, the functions of the roles have to be monitored as well, on whether the decisions are going according to schemes and rules of the appropriate municipality.
