Do street vendors have a right to the city?

The report argues that street vendors who are expressly recognised and protected by the Street Vendors Act 2014 continue to be stigmatized as “encroachers” and face the usual official and unofficial consequences including extortion, harassment and evictions. The State apparatus has not fully implemented the law in most states. Moreover, by evicting the vendors and creating no vending zones before enumeration, state authorities, as well as local administrations, have been in clear conflict with the law. Unfortunately, the courts have mostly sided with the government and upheld evictions.

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