<b>Subir Roy:</b> Let a hundred hawkers thrive

The great effort to rescue even a bit of pavements shows how contested densely lived urban space is

The roadside tea stall where I have two divine glasses of tea every morning after my walk has been around for over two decades, claims its owner. He says that the lane, at whose intersection with the Rashbehari connector to Kolkata’s Eastern Metropolitan Bypass his shop now stands, was not even there at one time. When he heard that a lane would come up, he planted his flag strategically and there it has been ever since.

A year ago a cloud appeared over the tea stall when the house behind it, one of whose two frontages the stall was blocking, changed hands. Soon enough a young man, seen to hang around the local party office, informally asked the tea stall owner to pack up and go. In the absence of a formal communication our chaiwala stayed put. And there things stood for a year.

The latest development is that workmen have started to break down the old house. Soon a large new structure, with provisions for shops which will need a clear frontage, will come up. So the day of reckoning when the tea stall will have to close or relocate is coming. When I again asked our chaiwala what was happening, he said, “Nothing; nobody has approached me.”

 I doubt if a subterranean power play is not on. Our chaiwala has over the years proved to be an astute businessman and acquired a good bit of real estate in a rising market. So he must be bargaining from his own position of strength. Little bits of space on pavements along prominent city streets, where hawkers have chalked out handkerchief-sized spaces for themselves, are known to change hands at astronomical prices. In one instance, according to a recent news report, a key patch of pavement changed hands at, you will hardly believe it, at well over the going rate for the poshest real estate.

The lesson seems clear. Once a city or a state lets hawkers take over well-located pavements and build an economic stake, the administration, already partially abdicated in many ways, can do little. There must be a sanctity to these rights to bits of pavements or else they would not change hands at astronomical rates. And such sanctity implies the rights are enforced. What you have is a parallel administration. It is easy to slide down this road; virtually impossible to recapture pavements, even if you want to, for people to walk.

A valiant attempt to do so is on nearby. A massive development, made up of hundreds of apartments, has come up nearby and it seems the builder has been able to influence the upgrading of two roads through which the residents of those apartments can access the Bypass. One road, which had no hawkers by its sides, has been widened and made into a well laid out dual carriageway. It is what is happening to the other road, no more than half a kilometre long, which is fascinating.

Open drains by the sides are on their way out, with sewer connections being laid. Where open drains or simply gutters now stand will come up broad pavements. A part of these pavements will be occupied by the hawkers’ stalls which will effectively be pushed back to where the drains or gutters were originally. The hope is that the road will be slightly wider than what it is now. There will be some pavement for people to walk so that they leave more of the carriageway to cars. My sense is that over time the stalls, particularly those selling food, will start reoccupying parts of the new pavements to place chairs for their customers. Will that mean going back to square one? May be, but not entirely. The lane at the beginning of which my favourite tea stall stands went through a similar process of getting a pavement and the hawkers being pushed back to where the gutters were. Now there is still no pavement to walk on but a bit of the carriageway is not being gobbled up by hawkers.

What unregulated hawkers can do to commerce is there for all to see in the same city. Till the sixties, New Market was the poshest shopping area in town. Now it is in total sorrowful decline. There are many reasons for this but the primary one is unregulated hawkers taking over not just pavements but good bits of carriageways too. Now, the area is difficult to access, by foot or car, what with hawkers and shoppers having taken over a lot of road space and all of pavements.

The great effort to rescue even a bit of pavements shows how contested is every inch of densely lived urban space. That is par for the course in cities across the world. In fact, outcomes after intense negotiations between stakeholders tend to be durable. The only issue is there has to be a state with a minimum of firmness to oversee and draw the lines beyond which things cannot be allowed to go. The problem with this part of the country is the considerable abdication of the state. The default solution — turn a blind eye to hawkers since manufacturing jobs are not coming — is hardly worth the name.

subirkroy@gmail.com