Dimapur, Sep. 24 (EMN): The Nagaland Voluntary Consumer Organisation (NVCO) has urged the Nagaland government to ‘adopt’ the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act of 2014 passed by the Parliament on February 20, 2014.
The group issued a press release on Sunday. The press release stated that the ‘central act’ will create a “conducive atmosphere” for street vendors to do business in dignity. Further, it will provide “livelihood protection” to street vendors especially the local people in the state capital Kohima town when selling local products, the organisation stated.
“The salient features of Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 is that the Act provides for constitution of a Town Vending Committee (TVC) in each local authority, which is the fulcrum of the Act, for implementing the provisions of the Act,” the organisation stated.
“It has been provided that 40% members of the TVC will from amongst street vendors with due representation from SC, ST, OBC, Minorities and persons with disabilities, of which one-third shall be women. In order to ensure participatory decision making for aspects relating to street vending activities, the TVC will be involved in activities like determination of natural market, identification of vending zones, preparation of street vending plan, survey of street vendors, etc.”
To avoid “arbitrariness” of authorities, the NVCO explained, the act provides for a survey of all existing street vendors, and subsequent survey at-least once in every five years, and issue of certificate of vending to all the street vendors identified in the survey, with preference to SC, ST, OBC, women, persons with disabilities, minorities, etc. It has been provided that no street vendor will be evicted until the survey has been completed and certificate of vending issued to the street vendors, the NVCO stated.
Further, the organisation stated, all existing street vendors, identified in the survey, will be accommodated in the vending zones subject to a norm conforming to 2.5% of the population of the ward or zone or town or city. The mechanism is to provide universal coverage, by protecting the street vendors from harassment and promoting their livelihood.
The Act also provides for promotional measures to be undertaken by the Government, towards availability of credit, insurance and other welfare schemes of social security, capacity building programmes, research, education and training programmes etc. for street vendors. The Act provides for protection of street vendors from harassment by police and other authorities and provides for an overriding clause to ensure they carry on their business without the fear of harassment by the authorities under any other law.
Support to urban Street Vendors under National Urban Livelihoods Mission
‘Support to Urban Street vendors’ is one of the components of ‘National Urban Livelihoods Mission’ (NULM) which aims at addressing the vulnerabilities of the urban street vendors through a multi-pronged approach, the press release stated. This includes: (i) Survey of street vendors and issue of Identity Cards (ii) Development of city street vending plans (iii) Infrastructure development of vending zones in the city (iv) Training and Skill Development (v) Financial Inclusion (vi) Access to credit (vii) Linkages to social security schemes.
The NVCO added that up to 5% of the total NULM allocation of the state can be spent on implementation of this component of NULM.
“Therefore, the NVCO urged the Government of Nagaland to introduce Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act especially in Kohima town,” the press release added.
