Activists, artists seek halt to Bengaluru street vendor eviction drive

More than 500 activists, academics, artists, and civil society members have signed an open letter urging the Karnataka government to stop the ongoing eviction drive against street vendors in Bengaluru.  The letter, addressed to Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, and Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao on July 17, sought that the drive be halted immediately and that the Street Vendors Act of 2014 be implemented properly. The signatories questioned why street vendors were being singled out in the name of making Bengaluru more pedestrian-friendly. "Overnight, the government has snatched away the livelihoods of thousands of street vendors in the name of 'safe footpaths' and 'walkable cities'," the letter said. It also pointed to images circulating on social media showing vendors being evicted while vehicles remained parked on the same footpaths. "Why are only street vendors being targeted by this campaign?" it asked.The letter alleged that the eviction drive violates multiple provisions of the Street Vendors Act, stating that it is "illegal to carry out evictions before the completion of the survey and issuing of vending certificates". It also said that areas could not be declared no-vending zones without the recommendation of a Town Vending Committee and that vendors could not be evicted without a 30-day written notice.The signatories also questioned official estimates of the number of vendors in the city. Referring to the PM SVANidhi scheme, they said Bengaluru has around 1.5 lakh street vendors, with nearly 80,000 having received loans under the scheme. "How, then, can the authorities now claim that there are only 27,000 vendors?" the letter asked, calling it a discrepancy that “raises questions about the survey design and leaves lakhs of vendors outside the protection of the law”.While expressing support for pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, the signatories argued that vendors were being unfairly blamed. "We are not against pedestrian-friendly cities. We only reject the idea that a city must evict its vendors to become one," the letter said. It added that "a well-functioning city must make space for both its pedestrians and its street vendors, and this does not happen with forceful evictions."The letter also cited the Justice Verma Committee's recommendations to argue that street vending contributes to women's safety by ensuring active public spaces after dark. It called on the government to stop the eviction drive, constitute Town Vending Committees, complete a comprehensive survey of street vendors, and consult vendor representatives on decisions affecting them.The signatories include filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh, actor Prakash Raj, writer and activist Vijayamma, physicist Prajval Shastry, architect Prem Chandavarkar, writer Rahamath Tarikere, theatre artist Lakshman KP, senior advocate BT Venkatesh, Federation of Untouchable Nomadic Communities Dr AS Prabhakar, writer Rupa Hassan and UN Special Rapporteur Ashwini KP. The letter has also been endorsed by groups such as All India Student Association (AISA), National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), Fridays For Future-Karnataka (FFF), Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike and Slum Mahila Sanghatane.On July 8, hundreds of vendors gathered at Freedom Park and held a bandh across parts of the city, demanding a halt to the eviction drive and alleging that the evictions violated the Street Vendors Act of 2014.This story was written by a student interning with TNM