Street vendors back again after eviction

The recent move by the two city corporations to ensure hawker-free city streets has had a little impact as the floating traders have started returning to their footpath-based trading.
Both Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) have been launching drives at various locations for the last several months in a bid to make the capital's footpaths pedestrian-friendly through evicting hawkers.
But during visits to several key locations like New Market, Gulistan, Farmgate, Paltan and Motijheel, footpaths of those areas were found to be completely under control of the small and medium-scale vendors. They have put products like low-cost clothing, shoes, books, plastic items, ceramics and electronics on sale as usual.
Approached by the FE, the vendors said the authorities should not take any harsh measures against them without arranging any alternative for the sake of their survival in a city where the cost of living goes up in a faster pace.
"Where will we go with our families? We're branded as illegal occupants although we pay a good amount of money to various quarters. The authorities should dedicate us a suitable place for our business, on which livelihood of thousands of people largely depends," said Mohammad Suman Miah who runs a 42 square-foot clothing space at New Market.
Talking to the FE, Shafiqul Islam, who owns three small trading spaces beside Bangabandhu Avenue, said he pays Tk 18,000 a month as rent to a vested quarter and the total cost will be more with inclusion of electricity bills and other services.
But the vendor did not disclose the identity of the vested quarter in detail.
"Many groups apart from vendors are being benefited by the trading that you call illegal. So, it's not an easy task to remove such business," he said.
When contacted, DSCC Chief Estate Officer Khalid Ahmed admitted the fact about return of the vendors to some places, saying that they would go for drives on a regular basis in those areas.
"The city corporation cannot achieve success alone. Cooperation of other key stakeholders, specially the law enforcers, is very much important to this effect," he said adding that making alternative arrangements for the floating traders is not their responsibility.
DSCC Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon on several occasions in the past expressed his dissatisfaction over the non-cooperation of the law-enforcement agencies in respect to recovering the footpaths and roads from illegal occupation.
However, such return of the community before the very nose of law enforcers in many points raises the question of willingness of both DSCC and DNCC among pedestrians and citizens' rights groups.
They said officials concerned often launch such eviction drives in the name of making pedestrians-friendly footpaths in the densely-populated capital but after a break of a few days or weeks the scenario remains the same with gatherings of hundreds of roadside vendors.
Stressing the need for a long-term planning, Prof Dr Musleh Uddin Hashan, Associate Professor, Dept of Urban & Regional Planning of BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) said nothing can be achieved through launching sudden drives.
At the same time, the city corporations should have the planning about use of the footpaths after the eviction, he said.  
There are 235,000 hawkers in the capital city. Of them, 65,000 are permanent, 75,000 temporary and 95,000 mobile vendors, according to Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB) Trust, a campaign group.
It said usually roadside vendors make investment ranging between Tk 200 and Tk 50,000 and their daily income varies between Tk 500 and Tk 1,000 depending on their investment and business locations.
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