Marina hawkers caught between new restrictions and deep blue sea

With the Greater Chennai Corporation now forced to cut the number of shopping carts on the Marina Beach, thanks to Madras High Court injunction, the livelihood of hundreds of families has been put into jeopardy. According to an order issued by the court on January 22, the Chennai Corporation should allow only 900 hawkers on the Marina. They should also be provided with uniform shopping carts, the court had said, putting March 24 as the deadline for implementing the same. Meanwhile, the court would give its final orders on the “exorbitant” rent proposed on these carts on February 4.

“Presently, there are around 3,000 shopping carts on the Marina Beach. But the Chennai Corporation had identified only 1,352 carts to be allowed on the beach. The court further reduced the number to 900,” said Kabilan, Teynampet zone street vendors’ committee member and a cart owner on the Marina Beach.

Kabilan pointed out that almost all the 1,352 vendors, who are identified by the civic body, are running shopping carts on the Marina for two to three generations and added that if the civic body reduces the number of shopping carts to 900, the livelihood of several vendors, who were depending on these carts for the past several decades, would be affected.

The hawkers are taking the move to bring in regulations on them in operating on the Marina — by enforcing uniform carts with a “huge” rent and putting a 900-cart cut-off limit — with a pinch of salt. While the stated reason for the decision is to avoid congestion on the beach and regulate vending, hawkers wonder why their carts should be treated as an eyesore. They also fear that the implementation of ‘uniform carts’ will help the cops identify those unlicensed pushcarts that dare to come anywhere near Marina. However, more worrying factor, the hawkers complain, is the limited ‘space’ the new carts offer.

“The proposed shopping cart is too small for us. The civic body should allow us to continue to use our shopping carts in their present condition. Also, the move to charge Rs 5,000 per month as rent for using the shopping cart, instead of the Rs 100 fixed by the civic body, would affect our livelihood. The hawkers are not in a position to pay such an exorbitant amount as monthly charges,” said Kabilan.

The civic body has allocated Rs 27 crore to provide steel shopping carts and also proposed to collect Rs 100 every month from the vendors, who use these shopping carts, but the High Court, in an interim order, hiked it to Rs 5,000.

A vendor, on condition of anonymity, said the monthly rent fixed by the civic body is more than what they can afford. “Our income is very low on weekdays. We manage to make some money only on weekends and holidays. If the civic body fixes a higher rent, we may not be in a position to pay it with our meagre earnings,” he added.

The development has come a few months after the Chennai Corporation conducted a regulation drive to align more than 1,900 carts on the 2.8-kilometre Marina Beach, which were operating haphazardly. During the drive, the civic body removed the hawkers, who were squatting near the tideline, and allocated them carts near the service road apart from restricting new hawkers from operating close to the sea.

“As a regular visitor to the beach, I have seen the changes when the regulations were brought in. The civic body should continue with the regulation but without reducing the number of shops. It is an issue of livelihood for them, and the civic body should be considerate and desist from taking any such harsh decision,” opined M Vishnupriya, a resident of Kodambakkam.

An official with the Chennai Corporation said the civic body is yet to take any decision on how to proceed with the contentious issue. “We are waiting for the High Court to give its final orders. We will have to act as the court directs,” he said and refused to further elaborate on the issue stating that the matter is sub judice.

While the vendors on the Marina Beach are demanding that the civic body should not reduce the number of shops, activists are urging the authorities to make alternative arrangements for the vendors as per the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood) Act.

“Most of the vendors on the Marina Beach belong to vulnerable communities. Where would they go if they are deprived of their livelihood? Regulations are good, but they should not be brought in at the cost of vendors’ daily bread,” said Venessa Peter, a policy researcher with the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC).

While the civic body had decided to limit the shopping carts to 1,352, and the High Court directing that the number should be further brought down to 900, the records with the Chennai Corporation suggest that around 1,480 hawkers that were operating on the beach were given identity cards under the Street Vendors’ Act. The officials are yet to take any decision on whether the remaining hawkers could be accommodated elsewhere or not.

Even as the Marina hawkers are up in arms, the Greater Chennai Corporation has released the details of street vendors it has identified across the city. As per the list, there are as many as 27,195 registered street vendors in the city who have been provided with identity cards. Of the total registered street vendors in the city, 14,600 vendors are women, which is more than 50 per cent. There are as many as 4,228 vendors selling food items, which is the highest among all the trades featured in the list. Also, there are 4,146 fruit vendors and 3,730 flower vendors on the city streets respectively. As many as 2,548 vendors sell vegetables and 1,989 vendors sell clothes, while 1,462 street vendors earn a living by selling fish. The civic body had already demarcated vending and non-vending zones as per the Street Vendors’ Act and the vending spaces would be allocated for the registered 27,195 street vendors. Street vendors’ committees in respective zones would allocate the space for the vendors. A Chennai Corporation official said that space would be allocated after the constitution of a street vendors’ grievance redressal committee so that the hawkers and shop owners can approach it in case there is a dispute over ‘spot allocation’ or related issues.