Poor logic behind moves to evict hawkers and rickshaws

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THE media recently reported that government is about to evict hawkers and rickshawpullers wholesale from all main roads of the Dhaka city. But in the name of ridding the city of jams, such moves are almost certainly likely to create severe backlash from their would-be victims destroying social and political stability .
The hawkers peddle merchandise on roads which are far cheaper than ones at stores as they have to bear no establishment costs. And the non-affluent section of the people are mainly the consumers of such relatively cheaper products. They would loathe to see their handy source of supply gone. The hawkers and members of their families and the non-affluent consumers together form the greater number in the population of the city. It can be neither democratic nor benevolent to rob them of their source of earnings and better bargain respectively.
As for the rickshawpullers, they are officially some 70 thousand in numbers but actually are more than a million strong. They and their dependants form a vast number of the poor in the city . The rickshaws are also completely relied on by a very large section of middle class people who cannot even dream of owning private cars nor can they ride suffocating transports like buses.
Thus, too much is at stake. Can the authorities overlook the fact that Dhaka is still by far a city of the poor and the non-affluent than the rich ? The government could unleash the eruption of a volcano of discontent with its attendant ruinous and violent consequences by going too abruptly and drastically with moves of evicting hawkers and rickshaws. It is foolishly inviting serious troubles.
Mahfuza Kabir
University of Dhaka