Rehabilitating footpath traders

Unofficial estimates say that there are more than 200,000 vendors doing business on the footpaths of Dhaka city. They sell several kinds of items from dawn to dusk. And their roadside presence often causes inconvenience to pedestrians as well as creates traffic congestions. There is no guideline on regulating temporary business activities on the footpath. To get rid of such nuisance what city corporation authorities do is just evict them periodically. But this does not produce any fruitful result. Once evicted, hawkers do not take much time to take over the recently-freed footpaths.

Evicting street hawkers without any rehabilitation plan is inhumane. They do not just randomly set up shop in an area. They get the space from powerful quarters. These are the political organisations with clout. Evicting hawkers cannot be a permanent solution. These people desperately need a source of income. We should provide them with designated places, where they can conduct their businesses legally.

Abu Elias Linkon,

Banasree, Dhaka,

lightening_sparkle@yahoo.com