Govt considering to allow 'mobile shops' for street vendors: Ministry

The idea was floated at a recent 'National Workshop on Street Vendors' organised by The idea was floated at a recent 'National Workshop on Street Vendors' organised by the ministry

The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry is contemplating to introduce 'mobile shops' concept for street vendors in the country under its National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM), a senior official said.

Ministry Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said that under the concept, the owner will be given license to do the mobile street vending.

The idea was floated at a recent 'National Workshop on Street Vendors' organised by the ministry.

"At the recent national workshop on street vendors, several suggestions came up. One of the suggestions was to allow 'mobile shop' in country. The ministry will consider it and find out a solution how we can provide funding (to mobile shops)," Mishra said.

He said 18 lakh street vendors have been identified so far in 2,430 cities across the country under the Street Vendors Act 2014.

Also, 2,344 'Street Vendor Committees' have been constituted and nine lakh street vendors have been issued identify cards under the Act, the secretary said.

He said that street vendors need some protection as they are providing various services to the society.

At the workshop held on Friday, a progress report, prepared by Centre for Civil Society (CSS), an NGO, over the implementation of Street Vendors Act, was released.

According to the report, Tamil Nadu topped the chart by scoring 75 marks out of 100 in implementing the Act and Mizoram came second, followed by Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and among others.

Nagaland, according to the NGO report, is the state with "very poor compliance" and scored nine marks.

Manipur, Karnataka, Sikkim and West Bengal have been listed in the category of states with "poor compliance" of the Act.

According to Ministry, National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) is aimed at providing shelters equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner.

It also stated that the NULM also addresses livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors by facilitating access to suitable spaces, institutional credit, social security and skills to the urban street vendors for accessing emerging market opportunities.