EVALUATING CONDITION OF STREET VENDORS, AN

APPROACH TOWARDS INCLUSIVE PLANNING – A CASE OF

SURAT
By: Jeet. S. Jariwala (Enrollment No: R19120030020310010),
Masters Of Urban and Regional Planning, GCPIA, Surat

Guided by: Prof. (Ar.) Anand Kapadia

ABSTRACT
Street vending an important occupation for the urban poor in developing countries. It performs
an important role in providing services to urban population, especially the poor. Their
contributions are unfortunately hardly ever recognized by governments. Instead, the government
are more often than not hostile to them. In most Asian countries the informal sector is very large
and it constitutes the main stay of economy. Instead of protecting this sector and ensuring that its
workers get minimum dues, the government are indifferent to their existence. The present study
comprehensively covers many case studies and literature review to understand the whole
scenario of street vendors across the Surat, India and world too. The basic aim of the study is to
look into the socio-economic condition of the street vendors to derive strategies for the problems
faced by the street vendors that will help in developing an inclusive plan for street vendors in
Surat city. The objective of this research is to employ a systematic method for research in this
field, extract their findings, and integrate them in order to propose a model that addresses the
factors affecting the success of street vending. Based on this models, major research issues are
outlined to advance the knowledge in the field. The study examined condition of street vendors
and their related activities in Surat city. Study is based on field survey data of street vendors and
their activities in selected zones of Surat and other secondary data from government authorities
and related organization. Study revealed that they face several problems like eviction,
harassment, lack of basic civic facilities, lack of formal space, license or certificate of vending
etc. Most of these problems are result of non-consideration of street vendors while planning
urban streets or land-use planning and Lack of implementation of street vending act. Study also
provides strategies for their inclusion as formalization of street vendors can also contribute
greatly in revenue generation and this will help in increasing GDP. Strategies for inclusion of
street vending has been given under the purview of National Policy on Urban Street Vendors and
street vending (protection of livelihood and regulation) act 2014. The proposed strategies will
help to accommodate them on street and off street in a planned manner through formal planning
and design innovations. A different study to derive mechanism for inclusion of street vendors
other than reservation in new development should be carried out in order to avoid existing
problems.

Keywords: Street Vendors, street vending, Surat, Inclusive plan, street vending act, street
vending plan