Rehabilitating city's hawkers

FE Team | Published: November 07, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Khalilur Rahman
The government has postponed eviction of hawkers from the city's footpaths till the ensuing Eid-ul-Azha. The drive to evict the hawkers was due to begin from November 1. The purpose of the eviction as disclosed by the Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain on October 21 last is to facilitate the movement of pedestrians as well as to ease traffic jam. In addition to evicting hawkers from footpaths, it was also planned to keep the city streets free from illegal parkings and occupation for various purposes. To start with, Shahbagh and Farmgate areas were selected for eviction.
With regard to postponement of eviction drive, the Communications Minister also said that the decision was taken following an appeal from hawkers' representatives for undertaking a comprehensive plan to rehabilitate them before dislodging those people from their trade. The Communications Minister noted with satisfaction that the hawkers' leaders appeared very much cooperative in carrying out the drive. But they requested the government to proceed in consultation with them.
Meantime, hawkers' leaders have threatened to go for a tougher movement in the city after Eid-ul-Azha if the government sticks to its decision of eviction without their rehabilitation. A report published in The Financial Express in its issue of October 30 last says that the hawkers' leaders who represent about 0.2 million roadside vendors in the city expressed fear that the poor traders might get involved in various crimes for survival if they were thrown out of their profession.
This is indeed a serious problem concerning the livelihood of a vast community of people who run their trade in open air shops on city's footpaths. Undoubtedly poverty breeds crimes and it is likely that the displaced hawkers in their desperation to survive might engage themselves in mugging, robbery, theft, pickpocketing, etc., as apprehended by their leaders. On the other hand, the acute gridlock persisting in the city without any immediate solution in sight has caused utmost sufferings to the townspeople. Any fruitful move by the government to resolve this crisis will come as a great relief to the inhabitants.
Under the prevailing circumstances, one can assume that hawkers' presence in footpaths is not the lone cause of traffic jam. Illegal parking of vehicles beside the roads, even in some places on the footpaths, wayside dumping of construction and other materials, holding of rallies on the streets and inundation of thoroughfares after rains are some of the major causes of gridlock. But the concerned authorities appear to be not so serious to resolve the problem. These obstacles to smooth movement of vehicular traffic and pedestrians can be removed quickly if the concerned authorities pay attention to the matter. The hawkers' rehabilitation, however, is not that easy. We know in the past the successive governments tried in vain to rehabilitate the hawkers. The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) constructed several markets for hawkers' community. But many genuine hawkers did not get room in those DCC markets due to exorbitant prices and induction of wealthy businessmen.
In the absence of dependable statistics of genuine hawkers in the city, their exact number is not known. This newspaper in its report quoted a study which shows that 46% of the hawkers of Dhaka city are permanent and the rest are regarded as seasonal. The seasonal hawkers come to the city from across the country during holy Ramadan, Eid, Puja and other festivals. Nine per cent of the total number of hawkers are women and their buyers constitute people from middle class and lower income groups.
The rehabilitation of hawkers as announced by the government is indeed a noble venture, but very difficult to accomplish. Abject poverty and growing unemployment force people to come to the cities in quest of livelihood from rural areas. The majority of these people turn rootless when their homesteads and farm lands are devoured by the rivers. The influx of these people to the city contribute largely to swelling the number of hawkers, day labourers, push-cart drivers and rickshawpullers, etc. During the rule of the immediate past caretaker government, hawkers were ruthlessly evicted from footpaths. Even those poor people who used to run their small trade at hats and bazaars in rural Bangladesh were not spared. But the ultimate result of the government action was a big zero. Therefore, the authorities should now take lesson from past experience and draw short-term and long-term plans to rehabilitate vendors on the basis of our available resources.
We must not forget that the rehabilitation means restoration of a person to his or her former home or position .
khalilbdh@gmail.com