Delhi Street Hawker situation is a ₹1200 Cr/year scam

Suneeta Auntyji works at our house. She also runs a small vegetable stand at a corner for some extra earnings as her husband is an alcoholic. Yesterday, MCD raided her stand, stole ₹8,000 worth of veggies along with her weighing scale.

While Suneeta Auntyji's livelihood was looted in broad daylight in the name of "official duty" by the folks at MCD, there's a hoard of food stalls that continue to operate (and thrive) in the area. What's their secret? Well, they pay a "Hafta" to police, MCD, DDA, and the likes very regularly. Even though Suneeta Auntyji lives in great financial duress, she pays, too. But given her scale of ops, the amount she pays is probably not enough to protect her from these random "raids" and "inspections". And so she stays in the line of fire whenever the Babu orders such a "surprise clean up" (or whatever they like to call it).

Whenever this is talked about, an old debate reimerges. The one which has a spirited side calling for an unbridled removal of such "illegal operations". And the other (almost equally spirited) bunch, which laments about the humanity of it.

What both sides miss is that this this isn't a case of legality or humanity. The truth is that street hawkers in Delhi are still mostly unregulated. Which means that they're neither legal, nor illegal in absolute terms. They fall under the regulatory "gray area", so to speak. There's a lot of ways the law can swing here. Which makes it an extremely good question to ask is why is that so.

Why don't they regulate street hawkers once and for all? Why don't they eliminate this "gray area" so things can be developed in a streamlined way? Why don't they solve for the Police, MCD, DDA, etc. brazenly and shamelessly taking "Hafta" money from the extremely poor? After all, this isn't something new. Why has this regulatory ambiguity allowed to stay in the face of India's capital 25 years into the 21st century?

Is it an accident that they haven't been able to solve for this until now? Or is it all totally deliberate, just so Babus could keep up the loot.

The naive me wants to believe that this is one of those things that have just slipped past our Babus' minds. They've somehow been so busy that they haven't been able to move on it ever since the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood & Regulation of Street Vending) Act was passed in 2014.

They must have been so occupied "serving" the nation, that Delhi Govt notified rules for street vending in 2017, but nothing happened. Then the Delhi Street Vending Scheme was notified in 2019, but nothing happened. Then surveys to be done by the likes of MCD throughout the years remained incomplete. And by 2025, all we got were Street Hawkers protesting at Jantar Mantar. Basically nothing happened.

Our Babus must've been really busy.

Then the skeptical me calculates. There are ~5 Lakh street hawkers in Delhi, paying ~₹2000/month in Hafta. This has not been solved, because it's a ₹1200 Cr/year scam.

I feel terribly sad for Suneeta Auntyji.

Delhi Street Hawkers are regularly looted and raided by the powers that be.

P.S. You just read an honest (and hopefully valuable) article for free. If you like reading my writings, consider making donations. Amounts don't matter, gestures do. Here's a big cheers to all my Patrons!

Read more articles here.