Street vending needs mainstreaming, not eviction

Walking along the footpath to the bus stop, you spot custard apples, blackberries, star fruit, or gooseberries put on display in bamboo baskets. The sight will take you back to your childhood memories in the village. You pick some of those fruits and remember your long bygone days.

There are many small household items for which you will not go to supershops. You may remember something necessary you were looking for just after it appears in front of you on your way to work or back home. 

These are the things on display at these wayside shops. These small traders, who you call hawkers or street vendors, serve your daily nitty gritty needs. In exchange they earn a living. They are the small economic units that form and shape our economy, our employment. These people, not the big ones who can make their voices heard everywhere and get things done on their terms, contribute the most.

"Public policies toward street vendors are hostile for two reasons: first, formalising them requires a tiresome process that officials are reluctant to undertake; second, as long as these people remain vulnerable, they continue to be a source of rent-seeking and extortion, kept in constant fear of eviction." Selim Jahan, Economist

We are the 99%

The latest Economic Census 2024 data, released by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Tuesday, showed micro and cottage industries led the growth, diversification and expansion of economic activities over the last one decade. 

The number of economic units in the country increased by nearly 50% — from 78 lakh in 2013 to 1.17 crore in 2024. Of the total economic units, rural and urban put together, micro enterprises account for nearly 57% or 66.31 lakhs, followed by cottage with 45.34 lakhs or 39%. In contrast, the share of small enterprises is little over 4% with 4.92 lakh units, while 36,112 medium ventures account for 0.31% and 9,286 large enterprises represent just 0.08%.

The official figures speak a lot about Bangladesh's economic landscape. The BBS data reveal micro and cottage enterprises are mainly concentrated in rural areas, while small, medium and large economic units are mostly centred in urban areas.

In Germany, micro and small ventures are given top priority in economic, banking and tax policies as fundamental elements of industrialisation. Japan's automobiles, China's electric vehicles and Malaysia's electronics industries grew into prosperity along with hundreds of small and cottage industries that make thousands of parts fit into finished products.

In Bangladesh, medium and large industries like to grow exclusively. Huge inputs come from micro, cottage and small units, but often these contributions are not cited while big industrial associations bargain for privilege. 

In 2011, the US was jolted by a popular movement — Occupy Wall Street — with the slogan 1:99, "we are the 99%" — highlighting the income and wealth inequalities between the economic elite (1%) and the rest of the population (99%).

For Bangladesh's economic units, this is a 1:99 scenario too.

The 99% are left out of economic and public policies. They make up the largest share of the country's workforce across all age groups. There are 1.16 crore micro and cottage units. These are not just individual units; they represent families. Behind each unit is a family.

Despite this, public policies and community attitudes toward them are often hostile.

Why?

Selim Jahan, Professorial Fellow at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, explains.

"Public policies toward street vendors are hostile for two reasons: first, formalising them requires a tiresome process that officials are reluctant to undertake; second, as long as these people remain vulnerable, they continue to be a source of rent-seeking and extortion, kept in constant fear of eviction."

To justify eviction drives, a common argument is that hawkers occupy footpaths, blocking space for pedestrians. But are footpaths meant only for walking — not for buying small yet useful household items, or for taking a break over tea or conversation?

"You cannot argue for freeing footpaths from hawkers just for a few people like you or me to walk leisurely in the afternoon," says Selim Jahan.

Even when footpaths are "fully freed" from hawkers, very few people will walk to work or shops, he believes, analysing the climate, the condition of pavements, and the general habits of people in Bangladesh. "Will you walk to your office?" he asks.

Wayside shops, as micro units, serve as a bridge between rural and urban economic activities. The shop owners live at the mercy of city authorities and law enforcers. This time, after the long Eid vacation, when they had just returned from villages and opened shops, the latest wave of eviction came their way.

This happens frequently — at least once a year — because these people have no voice. 

In contrast, corporation owners represent less than 1% of the country's economic units, yet they lead the private sector economy and are the largest employers in the formal workforce across manufacturing and service sectors. Economic policies are shaped by their needs, demands, and choices. 

Is running a tea stall on footpath a criminal offence?

Is running a tea stall, selling fuchka or pitha, or fruits and snacks a criminal offence? In emerging Asian countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and Mongolia, small street vending is defined as illegal. 

But the authorities in those countries recognise their importance in economy and employment, and have formulated different policies to accommodate small wayside businesses.

In all three countries, says an ILO study, street vending is an important source of income for the urban poor. It contributes to the national economy, creates employment, acts as a buffer for unemployment, and offers conveniences to customers. 

Therefore, it is important that street vendors are given clear legal status so they can claim their entitlements to pursue their livelihoods and their rights to space. 'It is therefore important to establish market governance that is inclusive of street vendors,' recommends the study on street businesses in these three Asian countries.

In Thailand, there is a universal health service scheme for small street vendors and in Mongolia, there is a well-covered social insurance scheme (although it mainly covers the formal sector). However, in Cambodia, there is no state-provided social security scheme.

Citing Thailand's experience as a success case, the study notes that authorities and management there do not try to control street vendors; instead, they listen to vendors' voices and respond to their needs. This has helped them find constructive ways to improve urban space utilisation and enhance vendors' businesses. In Cambodia, vendors' associations have established effective engagement with city authorities, paving the way for better negotiations and creative solutions to problems in markets and on the streets.

In 2006, Mongolia adopted a policy on informal employment aiming to provide government services to individuals, households and groups engaged in non-agricultural works and services, which are "legally not prohibited and not fully reflected in official registration, statistical information and social protection, and not organized in any forms."

The social insurance scheme is compulsory in Mongolia for formal sector workers, but it is also open to the informal sector, though very few of them join the scheme because of irregular income and lack of awareness. There is voluntary health insurance and pension schemes for informal workers. To protect themselves from police harassment, street vendors can obtain licenses from designated city authorities, though most of them do not go for this because of complicated procedures.

Studies suggest that street vendors can be meaningfully integrated into urban planning to make urban spaces multifunctional, recognising the diverse purposes and needs of people from various walks of life.

"Register them. Give them licenses. You can earmark areas for them and limit registered vendors area wise — say some for Gulshan, some others for Hatirpool, etc," Selim Jahan said. Like Sunday markets, evening markets in Bangkok, Dhaka can have more evening markets in designated areas such as one that sits on Wednesdays in Agargaon.

There can be some small license fee, say Tk500 for every registered vendor, he suggests.

"If there is a system, I'll definitely give a fee to run my business. It's my living. I run my family of five with what I earn from this stall," says Jesmine, a single mother running a tea stall at Eskaton Garden in the city.

She was on the run on Wednesday morning after hearing that nearby stalls were being demolished by a government agency. Last year, her stall was evicted and her goods taken away. 'Today, two of my customers helped me move some goods to safety. However, no one came, and my stall is safe for now,' says the woman entrepreneur."

Most street vendors in Phnom Penh are women whose earnings are barely enough to support their families. Yet they remain proud and confident, knowing they contribute to raising their children.

Jesmine also supports her family but cannot share that same confidence, as she is never sure when the next eviction drive will come.

Eviction, which has almost become a routine exercise, is not a solution, it is human rights violation as it deprives these self-employed people of their right to earning, feels Selim Jahan.