The document discusses issues faced by street vendors in urban areas using Sonipat City, India as a case study. It finds that 85% of street vendors in Sonipat are male and over 80% have a middle school education or less. Most vendors work over 10 hours a day but still earn less than 300 rupees daily. Proposed solutions include implementing the Street Vendors Act of 2014, providing licenses and training, and designating vending zones with basic amenities. Overall, the document examines the socioeconomic challenges of street vending as an informal occupation.

1. INFORMAL SECTOR
ARTICLE REVIEW
SONIKA PATEL
M.TECH -IInd SEM

2. ISSUES AND CHALLENGES FACED BY VENDORS ON URBAN
STREETS: A CASE OF SONIPAT CITY, INDIA
Urbanisation leads to growing population which
accelerates migration and these has further led to
employment issues. Urban labour expands faster than
employment generated in urban economy. So, urban
centres are not able to provide employment in formal
jobs due to lack of jobs and skill required. For livelihood
they are forced to informal sector this led to growth of
informal sector. It plays a major role in economy and
labour market mostly in developing countries. Here the
author has shown that unemployment rate has reduced to
8.8 in 2013 from 10 in 2010.
The article then introduces street vendors and classifies them as those who work at
specific location and regular basis, those who are not regular but area specific and
mobile vendors. Vending creates employment opportunities for migrated people due
to ease of entry, small scale and temporary structure which can be moved easily. They
sell products in irregulated conditions like harmful weather, environment and no fixed
time is there. They work for average 15 hours a day including preparation and selling
time.
The problem faced by vendors are irregular income. Lack of security as it may be
classified as illegal according to government regulations. There are health issues due
to lack of shelter, inhabitable area and long work hours.
The author shows developing strategy for inclusion into formal sector planning and
objective to analyse existing working condition and socio-economic profile for that
Sonipat will be taken as study area.
Legislation: (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014
aimed to protect and regulate vendors. Town Vending Committee will be responsible
for conducting of survey every 5 years of all the vendors under its jurisdiction and
certificate will be issued. All vendors will be provided designed lots and they won’t be
able to vend in no vending areas.
Literature study: Bhubaneswar- conflicts between municipal committee and street
vendors resulted in designated space and I cards for vendors and to keep the space
clean.
Karnataka municipality act 1964: Restrictions on vending areas, vending hours and
license fee with restricted number of licenses failed in Bangalore
Gujrat- The Supreme Court of India passed an order directing the Municipal
Corporation to formulate a scheme for ‘Hawking and Non-Hawking Zones’ in each
ward of the city of Baroda in 1987. In Ahmadabad the municipal law in Gujarat
prohibits the hawking of goods without a license and encroachment of areas.
The Bombay Police Act 1950 empowers the police to arrest hawkers for obstructing
free flow of traffic.
10
8.8
2010 2012
Emplyoment rate
growth rate formal workers

3. The Patna Municipal Corporation Act of 1951- in the case of unlicensed street
vendors or those who construct permanent structures) the CEO may remove the
impediments without prior notice and charge rent for the use of the space.
STUDY OF VENDORS OF SONIPAT CITY, INDIA
It is a residential city having 3.5 lakh population catering to Delhi and
industries located in Sonipat District. Planning wise it can be divided in old city
having colonies and new town having sectoral planning. The study represents they are
mostly located in transport interchanges and commercial areas, with varied diversity
with religion and they learn local languages. They are prone to asthma due to
pollution and traffic. They are prone to long working hours.
ANALYSIS OF THE SURVEY CONDUCTED
That male vendor constitutes 85% of the street vendors and 25% as female. Most of
the vendors are of less than 40 Years of age with no education or education up to
middle schooling, more than 80% of the vendors are in this profession from more than
one year. 75% of the vendors earn less than Rs 300/- a day after spending more than
10 Hours daily. They have need of good infrastructure facility.
SOLUTIONS TO THE STREET VENDOR’S PROBLEM IN THE CITY
The street vendors act 2014 implemented government should frame laws to protect
from anti-social elements, vendors should be included in planning process. Vendors
should have association for providing license from district administration. Skill and
training facilities for initial investment. Schemes like pension, health care should be
given. The street should have a vendor committee as guiding tool.
District administration should provide parking near vending zone for convenience.
The vending zone can be run by PPP. District administration should provide shade
and shelter and all basic amenities like solid waste, drinking etc.
Many vendors are stressed due to less number of people visiting due to large number
of shops and malls. They have fear of being evicted due to infrastructure development
like road widening etc and they don’t get any compensation. Through this article the
author shows that street vendors need to be considered when project is planned in a
city as these vendors have been part of the history and culture of the city.

4. URBAN INFORMAL SECTOR & MIGRANTS
The article shows that informal sector - “unorganised sector”- generates about 62 % of
GDP, 50 % of national savings and 40 % of national exports. The major outcome of
this development process is the increase in the regional disparities, at inter-state and
intra state level. National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector by
the GOI finds that 86% of the total employment in 2004-2005 was in the informal
sector. Further, the agricultural sector is entirely of informal workers and in non-
agricultural sector the NSSO documents finds that, nearly 71 % of total the workers in
rural areas and 67 % in the urban areas worked in the informal sector. The migrants do
not possess adequate skills which leads to rise in informal sector. They are scantly
paid without social security unlike formal sector. They more than rural areas, since
they are underpaid they have low quality of life, standard of living.
Informal Labour Market:
In 1972 the ILO characterised the informal sector as:
(a) Ease of entry (b) Reliance on indigenous resources (c) Family ownership of
enterprise (d) Small scale of operation (e) Labour-intensive methods of production
and adapted technology (f) Skills acquired outside the formal school system (g)
Unregulated and competitive markets
Whereas the formal sector was characterised by:
(a) Difficult entry (b) Frequent reliance on overseas resources (c) Corporate
ownership (d) Large scale of operation (e) Capital-intensive and often imported
technology (f) Formally acquired skills, often expatriate (g) Protected markets
Informal activities included:
(a) Farming, market gardening, self-employed artisans, shoe makers etc. (b)Working
in construction, housing etc., (c) Small scale distribution, e.g. petty traders, street
hawkers, (d)Beggars (e)Illegal activities like drug pushing
Formal sector income earning activities: Public and private sector wage earners.
Migration and informal settlements
The informal sector and its workers plus the informal workers in the formal sector
constitute the informal economy. Migrants face several barriers in access to civic
amenities, housing and employment, as well as restrictions on their political land
cultural rights because of linguistic and cultural differences. Many of them live in
slum & hazardous condition leads to disaster and health issues so there is a need to
improve condition of migrants.
Migration, Urbanization and Cities
The urban population is comprising 377 million people out of a total population of
1,210 million people, as enumerated in the 2011 Census. Urbanization happened in
major nucleus like Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and
Chennai.
Year The contribution of urban areas to India’s GDP
1950-1951 29 %
1980-1981 47 %
2007 63 %
Expected increase by 2021 75 %

5. Due to increasing economic growth is associated with regional disparity and lopsided
urbanization. The internal migrants were as many as 309 million in India alone out of
that 101 million enumerated in urban areas.
Year Million plus
cities
population residing out of total
population
2001 35 38 %
2011 53 43 %
Migration and employment
Year Employment related migration- male
1993 42 %
1999-2000 52 %
2007-2008 56 %
About 30 % of total migrant workers, working as casual workers, are vulnerable to the
vagaries of the labour market and lack social protection. Only 35 % of total migrant
workers are employed as regular/salaried workers.
Seasonal and Temporary Migration
It is most predominant in socially backward group, poor or landless rural people or
environmental shock, religious and political conflict. Delhi and the states of Gujarat
and Maharashtra are top destinations for inter-state migrant labour from Odisha,
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
During 2001-2011 the number of new town has increased due to burden on old cities
because of migration and urban informal settlements. The development of informal
sector increases human capital which further increase the cycle of migration and more
informal settlement. The reason of migration is push and pull factors, push like low
wage, lack of opportunities, disaster and pull like more employment, QOL, improved
infrastructure & roads.
Impact: they could get into debt cycle which incurred in rural area, they are not able
to improve social- economic conditions, long hours of work, health issues, security.
Women are paid lower than male counterparts. It can be good as the pay, time and
scale is not fixed they can easily accommodate. the brokers make the migrant
labourers work for 18-20 hours and then pay them minimally since no formal contract
are there, they can be dismissed any time. The shift of rural labourers from farm
activities to nonfarming activities.
There are findings like: -
• Education- level of education leads
to rise in informal sector
• Children- there is substantial amount
of child labour in informal sector
• Social network: the informal sector
is majorly concentrated by SC/ST or
minorities
Work Participation and Sex Ratio
59%
33%
5% 3%
FEMALE MIGRATION
Marriage
Family moved
Emplyoment
Education

6. STRUCTURE OF UNORGANIZED SECTOR IN INDIA
According to UN Economic and Social Council, informal workers are defined “to include
persons whose employment relationship is not subject to labour legislation, social
protection and certain employment benefit”. Who have not been able to organize in
pursuit of a common objective because of constraints such as casual nature of
employment, ignorance and illiteracy, small and scattered size of establishments and
superior strength of the employer operating singly or in combination. The Commission
listed illustrative categories of unorganized labour consisting of 1) construction workers
2) labourers employed in small scale industry 3) casual labour 4) handloom/ power loom
workers 5) beedi and cigar workers 6) employees in shops and commercial establishments
7) sweepers and scavengers 8) workers in tanneries 9) tribal labour and other unprotected
labour. Women do arduous work as wage earners, paid labour whose socio-economic
conditions with low wages and conditions are dismal without job and social security.
(NSSO) criteria for the identification of unorganized sector: -
1. In the case of manufacturing industries, the enterprises not covered under the Annual
Survey of Industries (ASI) are taken to constitute the unorganized sector.
2. In the case of service industries, all enterprises except those run by the government
(Central, State and Local Bodies) and in the public sector are regarded as unorganized.
Some specific characteristic of unorganized workers is the following.
1. The unorganized labour are omnipresent throughout India.
2. unorganized sector suffered from seasonal employment, unstable employment
3. scattered work place, may not live and work together in same geographical location
4. No formal documents and employer and employee relationship.
5. They are usually subjected to crime, customs like child marriage, debt and bondages.
6. exploitation due to poor working conditions, low wage, lack of work status.
7. Large scale ignorance and illiteracy leads to lack of technology usage.
8. Lack of awareness leads to environmental issues due to slum and informal settlements.
9. they do not receive any attention from trade union
Unorganized workers can be categorized under the following four heads namely: -
1. In terms of occupation: self-employed, small farmers, fisherman, artisans etc.
2. In terms of nature of employment: labours, migrant’s workers etc
3. specially distressed category: scavengers, carriers of head loads, drivers etc.
4. In terms of service categories: domestic workers, vendors, barbers etc.
Size of informal or unorganized workers
Between 1999-2000 and 2009-10, the total
workforce in India expanded from 396.76 million to
460.22 million and majority of them are engaged in
the informal sector. The informal sector population
increased from (20.46 to 42.14 million) during the
ten-year period, this shows increase in increased
casualisation and the implementation of contractual
labour practices. The formal sector is a matter of
great concern for policy makers. Only 42.20 % of
formal sector workers are formal workers. Thus, a
large number of workers in the formal sector are
informal in nature. They do not have any social
62
42.2
1999 2010
SHARE OF FORMAL EMPLOYEMENT
IN ORGANIZED SECTOR %
share of formal employement in organized sector

7. security, job security and other benefits which the regular wage employees enjoy in the
formal sector.
Rural-urban distribution of formal and informal workers:
DISTRIBUTION INFORMAL SECTOR FORMAL SECTOR
MALE 91.75 % 8.25 %
FEMALE 95.63 % 4.37 %
RURAL 96.59 % 3.41 %
URBAN 82.54 % 17.46 %
Annual growth rate of formal and informal workers by area and sex: growth rate of
formal workers is negative (-0.58) and informal workers is positive (1.81). growth of
male formal workers (-0.65) in both rural and urban areas and female employment is (-
1.43)
Share of informal workers across the States: Bihar has the highest percentage of
informal workers (96.46%) followed by Utter Pradesh (95.53%), Rajasthan (95.17%),
Madhya Pradesh (94.93%) etc.
Poverty ratio among Unorganized workers: an average family of five spending less
than Rs 4,824 per month in urban areas and Rs. 3,905 per month in rural areas belong to
BPL category. 76.8 percent of the informal or unorganized workers belong to the poor.
Globalization and the informal economy: Liberalization, Privatization and
Globalization (LPG) policies adopted in India lead to an increase in the informal sector
work. Due to globalisation new technologies came, and for low labour cost most
companies move to informal labour and also to avoid provision of social security
measures. The permanent labour was disappearing.
KERALA:
A labour friendly city, there is a concern of protection of interest of labours and their
welfare. The employment in 2009 is 12.95 million in the state. The estimated number of
informal workers in Kerala in 2009-10 is 11.85 million (91.51 percent of total workers)
and it is higher than 2004-05 with 0.52 percent annual growth rate. Conversely, there is a
decline of -0.53 percent annually with regard to formal workers.
Employment in the unorganized sector- nearly 90 percent of the rural and urban
workers engaged in agriculture sector. industries having a very high proportion of
workers in the informal sector are mining and quarrying (88%), manufacturing (89%),
construction (82%), wholesale and retail trade (91%), hotels and restaurants (94%), real
estate and business activities (84%) and transport and communications (82%) of total
workers in respective fields.
The study shows that about 93 percent of workers in India are informal workers, about 60
percent of them are engaged in agriculture sector. In Kerala, 91.51 percent of workers are
informal. A vast majority of them do not get any statutory social security allowance such
as health care benefits, paid leave for illness, maternity benefits, insurance, old age
pension, etc. In spite of these problems, they contribute a major share of GDP.