Beyond Evictions: Integrating Street Vendors into Walkable Urbanism

In their quest to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 11, which seeks to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, Indian cities are increasingly promoting the concepts of walkability, non-motorised transport (NMT), and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in their urban development discourse. Aligned with the core principle of ‘moving people, not cars,’ these concepts prioritise pedestrians and public transit users. Encouraged by government schemes, including the Smart Cities Mission (SCM), and aided by innovative, participatory measures, such as the Streets for People Challenge, Cycles4Change, and Transport4All, they aim to enable sustainable, green, and inclusive mobility. 

The Walker-Vendor Conflict 

Walkable cities incorporate comprehensive planning, design, and infrastructure systems, providing encroachment-free sidewalks that support pedestrian-friendly mobility. Such initiatives facilitate upgrades to footpaths and create NMT corridors, especially for first- and last-mile linkages to and from transport hubs. Municipal corporations and Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) have laid out street plans, redesigned junctions, and reclaimed road margins for walking and cycling.

While NMT interventions promote green mobility, safety, and decongested roads, they often collide with the right to livelihood and spatial presence of the poor, leading to the ‘invisibilisation’ of street vendors and informal workers, who, for decades, have been synonymous with Indian streetscapes.

While NMT interventions promote green mobility, safety, and decongested roads, they often collide with the right to livelihood and spatial presence of the poor, leading to the ‘invisibilisation’ of street vendors and informal workers, who, for decades, have been synonymous with Indian streetscapes. For example, the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy guidelines, which inform many NMT interventions in India’s cities, call for unhindered pedestrian mobility, “clear of anything that would prevent a user from moving from one part of the sidewalk to the other.” Pedestrian-first interventions that aim for unobstructed sidewalks thus label vendors and their informal commercial activities on the sidewalks as “undesirable” features, which must be summarily removed. 

Such interventions undermine the immense contribution of vendors to a city’s low-carbon economy. A significant source of self-employment, vending provides the sole source of income for millions, especially those with limited formal education and skills. Street vendors operate without motorised logistics, use minimal energy, create low waste, and instil local economies with vibrancy, competition, and consumer choice. 

Recognising their importance, the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act legalised their activities in 2014. The Act defines vendors as those operating in public spaces and mandates the formation of Town Vending Committees (TVCs) with stakeholder representation. Complementing the Act, the PM Svanidhi scheme, which aims to provide microcredit and digital identities to vendors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, also recommends city-wide vendor surveys. However, most cities have not completed these surveys, and many TVCs are inactive. The Act also recognises the spatial “holding capacity,” limiting the number of vendors in each vending zone. If such holding capacity is breached, it allows for the relocation of excess vendors to other parts of the city, except in the no-vending zones. 

The Indian Road Congress also recognises the multifunctionality of roads and guides the integration of street vendors into pavement planning. SCM project documents also acknowledge street vending and promote demarcated vending zones with storage spaces, shade and water. 

Legal and Policy Disharmony and the Informal Economy  

Walkability, ensuring accessibility and ease of mobility for older adults, children, pregnant women, and individuals with disabilities, is a vital necessity for healthy cities. Despite the Supreme Court of India recognising walking and NMT infrastructure as a constitutional right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, their absence or encroachment by parked vehicles or vendors has made walking a high-risk task in India. For example, nearly 1.5 lakh pedestrians died in road crashes from 2019 to 2023, accounting for 20 percent of all road fatalities during this period. 

In response, several states, including Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Telangana, and Maharashtra, have reimagined streets as spaces for the people and incorporated NMT at the core of their urban mobility planning. However, most of these interventions adopt an elitist approach, disregarding Supreme Court judgements that have recognised the right to street vending as a constitutional right and legitimate occupation. They increasingly prioritise aesthetics over a deeper engagement with, and understanding of, the realities of urban informality. Consequently, vendors, who rely on the streets and sidewalks for their livelihoods, are treated as obstructions that must be removed. 

The DAY-NULM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Urban Livelihood Mission), which supports vendor livelihoods, had no new allocations in the Union Budget 2025-26, impacting vending surveys, spatial integration and TVCs.  

At the same time, the conflicting position of the courts on the status of vendors has added to the confusion. For example, in April 2024, the Bombay High Court ruled that “unauthorised hawkers can’t permanently take over footpaths or public roads,” referring explicitly to the rights of pedestrians under Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. It suggested replacing permanent vending with mobile ‘pop-up’ markets, designed for pedestrian access while still allowing vendors to operate, but without providing any guidance on how to plan, maintain footfall, ensure income security, or address infrastructure and climate resilience in these pop-up spaces. 

The DAY-NULM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Urban Livelihood Mission), which supports vendor livelihoods, had no new allocations in the Union Budget 2025-26, impacting vending surveys, spatial integration and TVCs.  

SMC projects also conveniently sidestep their commitments and treat vendors as obstacles rather than co-users of streets during implementation. Thiruvananthapuram’s Smart City project, for instance, established vending zones in inner-city lanes with sparse traffic and pedestrian movement. Similarly, the regular eviction of long-time vendors from Mumbai’s busy markets, at various places in South Mumbai and the suburbs, disregards their decades of local negotiation, familiarity, trust, and recognition. 

Municipal laws, such as Section 314(c) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act (1888), Section 322 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act (1957), and the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act (1976), empower municipal commissioners to remove vendors without notice, justified via selective readings of the 2014 Act. For example, in June 2025, more than 10 years after the Act came into force, hundreds of street vendors and informal workers protested in Delhi, demanding that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) conduct transparent surveys, halt illegal evictions, and issue vending identity permits. Recently, Bengaluru also witnessed such protests against the indiscriminate evictions of legitimate vendors without notice.

In effect, while several laws and government schemes intended to synergise city mobility with vendor welfare exist on paper, city planners and law enforcers often resort to eviction as an easy remedy — instead of promoting spatial planning that considers heat-sensitive street design and shaded corridors.

In effect, while several laws and government schemes intended to synergise city mobility with vendor welfare exist on paper, city planners and law enforcers often resort to eviction as an easy remedy — instead of promoting spatial planning that considers heat-sensitive street design and shaded corridors. Such administrative convenience increases the vendors’ climate vulnerability, often exposing them to heatwaves and worsening air quality, with no access to shelters or cooling infrastructure. 

Reimagining Vendors as Co-Users of Roads 

Walkable urbanism must not come at the cost of inclusive cities. People-centric, climate-resilient and walkable cities must recognise informal workers and street vendors as equal and essential stakeholders. Their integration must extend beyond vending zones and permits, with investments providing a stable work environment, inclusive and climate-resilient infrastructure, and spatial guarantees. The solution is not just legal, but is political and design-based. It requires: 

1. Recognising and designing sidewalks and footpaths as multi-use spaces for walking and vending.
2. The provision of basic street infrastructure, including toilets, utility bins, clean drinking water and climate-resilient vending infrastructure.
3. Transparent vendor surveys and an understanding of vendors’ spatial logic and needs.
4. Establishing functional and representative TVCs. 

Walkable urbanism is a welcome and much-needed concept, but it must account for streets as mixed-use public spaces, including vendors in actual practice. The right to walk and the right to work and live with dignity must co-exist, as cities cannot be sustainable without ensuring sustainable livelihoods, particularly for the vulnerable.

Dhaval Desai is a Senior Fellow and Vice President at the Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai. 

Durga Narayan is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation.

• Urbanisation
• India
• nmt corridors
• pedestrian friendly mobility
• street vendors act
• Sustainable Development Goals
• walkable urbanism

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