The Human Rights Forum (HRF) takes strong exception to the forcible evictions of street vendors by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC). These removals are in clear violation of The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, a law enacted precisely to protect vendors from arbitrary removal and harassment, and to secure their right to livelihood. We demand an immediate halt to these unlawful and violent evictions.
Over the past several weeks, the GVMC has forcibly removed more than 2,850 roadside vendors and small shops, pushing thousands of families into acute insecurity. According to reports, vendors are being evicted without due process, often on the basis of sudden oral information. Such actions are arbitrary and a direct assault on the Constitutional right to livelihood of some of the city’s poorest residents. Street vendors are the backbone of our urban informal economy, providing affordable goods and services to lakhs of citizens. Yet, instead of recognising their vital contribution, the GVMC has resorted to violent removal, confiscated wares, and subjected vendors to brutal harassment. These measures not only strip hard-working families of their livelihoods but also trample upon their dignity, deepening the precarity they already endure. Does the government even grasp the cruelty it is unleashing on the poor?
The seminal 2014 Vendors Act explicitly prohibits such acts. Section 3(3) of the Act clearly states: “No street vendor shall be evicted or, as the case may be, relocated, till the survey specified under subsection (1) has been completed and the certificate of vending is issued to all street vendors.” Section 12 further requires that no vendor can be
removed without due notice and proper procedure. The law also requires the constitution of Town Vending Committees (TVCs) with vendor representation to identify and demarcate vending zones and regulate street vending in a fair and transparent manner. In fact, the very purpose of the 2014 Act is to protect the rights of street vendors and to guard against the kind of arbitrary eviction and harassment now being carried out by the GVMC. The Corporation is in contempt of the law.
Despite these clear and binding provisions, the GVMC is acting unilaterally and evicting vendors without completing surveys, without proper issuance of certificates of vending, and without meaningful consultation with a functioning Town Vending Committee. In brazen disregard of the 2014 Act’s framework, which seeks to balance vendors’ rights with public convenience, the GVMC has reduced regulation to repression. What the law envisages as protection and orderly management is being twisted into punishment, thereby shredding the democratic guarantees owed to the city’s most vulnerable.
It must be underscored that street vendors are not criminals but workers who, through years of toil, have created an affordable and accessible distribution system for urban residents. Far from being a ‘nuisance,’ their presence sustains the economy and keeps countless households from slipping into destitution. The GVMC’s selective targeting and dispossession of street vendors while large commercial establishments and corporate encroachments enjoy protection and State patronage lays bare the stark discriminatory and brutal nature of the government’s approach. Violence is not only physical assault; it is also the destruction of livelihoods, the daily humiliation of working people, and the denial of their right to the city. HRF believes that urban governance must be anchored in justice and equity, not in the systematic dispossession of the poor, whether they are residents of slums or vendors on our streets.
We demand that all ongoing and planned demolitions and evictions of push carts and stalls of street vendors be stopped immediately. A transparent and consultative process must be initiated in accordance with the 2014 Act, including the formation of functional Town Vending Committees in the city. The requisite statutory surveys must be conducted fairly, vending zones duly designated and ensured in consultation with vendors and all eligible vendors issued Certificates of Vending. We also call for restitution for evicted vendors, including return of seized goods without penalty and compensation for loss of livelihood. There must also be accountability of officials responsible who have acted in violation of the law.
M Sarat – HRF AP State vice-president
K Anuradha – HRF State Committee member
VS Krishna – HRF AP&TG Coordination Committee member
24-9-2025,
Visakhapatnam.