In the last week of June, an administrative review meeting by the Chief Minister of West Bengal mentioned the issues of Urban Development and ‘beautification’, encroachments throughout the city landscape, especially in Kolkata and in the adjacent suburbs. The day after the announcements, the police, administration and local authorities began organized crackdown on the street vendors and hawkers in different parts of the state. In Kolkata, places like Esplanade, Hathi Bagan and Gariahat which are conventional market places for the commoners and is constituted mostly by street vendors and small businesses, incurred most damage. Eventually after protest and resistance erupted in many parts of Bengal against the eviction drive, the Chief Minister had publicly announced to grant a period of one month to review the situation and take action accordingly.
In this time of distress, the left parties and trade unions are standing tall against the bulldozers policies that is wreaking havoc on the lives and livelihood of poor. Be it in Kolkata or in other places, AICCTU and its affiliated Hawkers’ federations are vehemently opposing this eviction drive. Calcutta Street Hawker's Federation (an affiliated body of AICCTU) initiated a city-wide campaign and organized marches and protest demonstrations and submitted deputations to the local Police stations in many parts of the city, condemning forced eviction by police and local authority. Trade unions affiliated under AICCTU like Birsulhat Leather Hawker's Union are in the forefront of this struggle.
On 11th July, a joint platform of TUs and Hawker Federations ‘Hawker Joutho Mancha’ organized a march to Kolkata Corporation Headquarters and submitted deputation to the Mayor demanding immediate implementation of the central Street Vendors Act, 2014 and an end to illegal evictions drives without proper rehabilitation.
AICCTU State Secretary Dibakar Bhattacharya said, it is observed with deep concern that formation of town vending committee, preparation of survey report, issuance of license for smooth running of businesses and planned rehabilitation policy has not been adopted as per the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The policy of no eviction without resettlement could not be ensured by the state government even in the last 10 years. In the name of urban beautification bulldozers are being used to evict poor people like Yogi Raj does in Uttar Pradesh.
The major demands in the meeting include:
Immediate implementation of central Street Vendors Act, 2014
Hawkers must be provided with license and identity card.
To rehabilitate hawkers, a hawker market instead of shopping mall may be constructed in each ward.
The Town Vending Committee should have representatives of Hawker Unions including Central Trade Unions.
Stop harassing the poor and marginalized in the name of development.
CITU State Secretary Anadi Sau, AITUC's Leena Chatterjee, UTUC’s Manu Mallick, TUCC's Ganesh Ram and others also addressed the meeting.
