Abstract
Efforts to advance a strong legal framework to protect informal worker rights in India have tread a convoluted path, fraught with numerous challenges. The long struggle for the legal recognition of street vendors has involved many landmark court rulings, but the implementation of these rulings has been problematic. The problems of implementation include the issues of regulatory design of the Street Vendors Act 2014 and the institutional resistance to enabling informal livelihoods. Government measures to support the most vulnerable street vendors have been inconsistent, particularly at the local level, where confusion and resistance persist. While the pandemic further complicated these issues, it also prompted the Central Government to introduce the PM Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (‘SVANidhi’) scheme which provided microcredit to street vendors and accelerated their identification and enumeration in some cities. This paper examines how the SVANidhi scheme adds a new dimension to the legal battle for street vendors by reimagining them as entrepreneurs eligible for credit. The paper highlights the conflicting perspectives of policymakers and law enforcers—while national policies view street vendors as creditworthy, local authorities often see them as nuisances. The paper argues for a more cohesive multi-level governance model that aligns central and local policies. It also advocates for reframing credit for street vendors through the lens of the Social Solidarity Economy (‘SSE’), which the United Nations defines as “a broad set of organisations and enterprises that are specifically geared to producing goods, services and knowledge, while pursuing economic and social aims and fostering solidarity.” By adopting the SSE approach, street vendors can be re-envisioned as entrepreneurs, better addressing their credit needs and social security. Accordingly, the paper ultimately calls for a policy shift in how credit for street vendors is perceived and implemented, promoting worker cooperatives to design their credit solutions within the SSE framework.
Custom Citation
Roopa Madhav and Avi Singh Majithia, 'Street Vendors and Social Solidarity Economy: Reimagining Credit and Social Security' (2023) 19(2) Socio-Legal Review 37.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.55496/KSTJ6541
