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"We deliver valuable services at affordable rates and create our own employment opportunities; then why should we be treated as criminals?"

A person who offers goods or services for sale to the public without having a permanently built structure or via mobile stall.

Street Vendors

A street vendor is a person who offers goods or services for sale to the public without possessing a permanently built structure but a temporary static structure or mobile stall (or head-load). Street vendors can be stationary and occupy space on the pavements or other public/private areas, or could be mobile, and move from place to place carrying their wares on push carts or in cycles or baskets on their heads, or could sell their wares in moving buses.The women vendors that SEWA in Delhi works with are mostly from the Raghubir Nagar, Sundarnagari and Seelampur areas. Pheri vendors take old and unused clothes and exchange them utensils, thus driving a circular economy. The upcycled clothes are then sold in local markets on Sundays. Mochi vendors or those belonging to the cobbler community trade in either home made or refurbished shoes at affordable prices.

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Role of SEWA in Delhi

  • The SEWA movement in Delhi began with women vegetable vendors in urban slums of Jahangirpuri, north Delhi, and then spread to Raghubhir Nagar, West Delhi. Now, there are around 9,000 street vendors in the SEWA in Delhi union from across four of Delhi’s most deprived areas – Raghubhir Nagar, Sundarnagari, Seelampur, and Jahangirpuri.
  • SEWA in Delhi played an active role in trying to regularize markets for street vendors vending in four weekly bazaars (Mahila Bazaar, Book Bazaar, Qutub Road Bazaar and Kabadi Bazaar ) for several years now. SEWA even took the support of experts and professionals for preparing viable market layouts and designing spaces for vendors where selling and buying could take place in a safe place without the disturbance of traffic. Despite constant forced vacation and Covid-19 driven stagnation, SEWA in Delhi has persisted in its efforts to revitalize vendor markets in an environment that aids vendors with amenities and circumvents bribery. As a unique model, SEWA in Delhi helped establish Mahila Bazaar , exclusively for women vendors, taking into account hygiene, safety and need for visibility for women vendors. The aid of SEWA in Delhi in avoiding police hassle has been instrumental in sustaining this market in Tagore Nagar despite the absence of legal status.

Highlights of work by SEWA in Delhi

SEWA is one of pioneers behind the Passing of Street Vendors Bill (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) in 2014 after dedicated and collaborative efforts, and continued work towards its due implementation.
One of the critical contributions of SEWA in the Street Vendors Act act includes recommending the inclusion of a provision for forming town vending committees (TVCs) on a zonal basis. This recommendation was crucial because it helped to create a framework for regulating street vending and providing licenses to vendors in a more organized and localized manner.
On the occasion of Street Vendors Day, on 14th November, 2022 , SEWA in Delhi organized a 200 street vendor women and drafted a demand letter which was submitted to the SDMC highlighting three key demands - a) Issuance of street vendors certificates of those who were surveyed b) conducting a second round of survey ensuring that all street vendors in Delhi are included in the regulatory framework and c) inclusion of SEWA in Delhi as a civil society organization member in the TVCs.
SEWA in Delhi also supported 1,497 street vendors to access PM SVANidhi loans by filling out their application forms. Prior to this, SEWA in Delhi reached out to over 5000 street vendors sensitizing them about the scheme.
Reinstatement of the Velodrome market/ Kabadi Bazaar in 2010; continual fight to attain legality of vending locations after Covid-19 led to halt of temporary market under Yamuna Bridge.
Victory in court case to prevent displacement of Qutub Road Market
Reinstatement of Book Bazaar in Mahila Haat (2019), garnering sufficient support from previously opposing vendor groups in January 2023