New Delhi, Apr 18 (KNN) States are not doing enough to implement the Street Vendors Act 2014 that aims at protection of street vendor rights, this has been revealed by the study conducted by think tank Centre for Civil society (CCS).  In the Street Vendors Act Compliance Index, the think tank studied the status of compliance of the act in 23 states of the country.

In the report, the states were given points on the basis of the stages up to which they have implemented the act in the state.

According to the findings, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Tripura were found to be the most compliant states.  Nagaland, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh Meghalaya and Rajasthan are the worst performers in the index.  None of these states complied with the provision of forming schemes and rules within the statutory time period as per the act.

Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Poducherry, Uttarakhand and West Bengal did not even respond to RTI applications and telephonic calls for data collection the report said

Talking to KNN, Arvind Singh, President of National Association of Street Vendors of India said that the Act is in its best form, the passing of the Act in the Parliament had brought a lot of hopes for the vendors, but the poor paced implementation is a cause of great concern.

“While few states such as Himachal, Karnataka, and Jharkhand are doing good there are other states that are yet to begin with the primary procedure of conducting surveys and providing the street vendors the identification cards” said Singh.

Explaining the consequences Singh said that since the vendors in most of the states haven’t been provided with ID cards, they face exploitation at various levels.

Highlighting upon the situation he said that due to the failure in implementation of the Act, the street vendors continue to remain unorganized and illegal. “Since the vendors don’t have a legal status, police and the Municipal officials come and ask for bribe anytime, and the vendors are helpless” he added

In recent years there has been a rise in the urbanisation process, which means the cities witness a parallel rise in the coming of poor migrant population that adds to the street vendors’ numbers.

Emphasizing the urgency to implement the Act, Singh said “The government must take into account the situation and implement the act as earliest as possible; otherwise the street vendors will continue to remain part of the unorganized sector”. (KNN/ DA)