The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is poised to distribute vending certificates to thousands of hawkers across the city starting this April, marking a significant step in regulating street vending and ensuring adherence to urban planning norms.
With an initial batch of around 8,000 certificates set to be issued, the KMC is targeting hawkers who were surveyed and identified as compliant with the city’s vending rules during the 2015 and 2022-23 surveys. This long-awaited initiative will also facilitate the enforcement of existing rules and safeguard the livelihoods of legitimate hawkers.
This new certificate distribution scheme, as reported by KMC officials, aims to formalise the vending process by providing hawkers with unique identification cards that include their name, age, stall location, size, and the type of goods they sell. The certificates will also feature an identification number, ensuring a transparent and regulated vending system. To obtain the certificates, hawkers will have to submit Aadhaar verification and prove they are in compliance with key spatial guidelines, such as the “one-third pavement rule” and the prohibition on plastic sheets.
The KMC’s initiative follows several years of contentious debate between civic authorities, street vendors, and environmental groups. The goal of the certification is to differentiate between legitimate hawkers and encroachers, thereby enabling both the KMC and local law enforcement to regulate street vending without unnecessarily disrupting businesses. Any hawker found violating the set norms risks having their certificate revoked and could face eviction. After legal setbacks and protests from environmental activists, the KMC cleared the final round of approval from civic officials in early 2024. Subsequently, the distribution was delayed, but now, with all legal formalities cleared, the civic body aims to begin the certificate distribution by April 2025, as indicated by KMC sources.
Urban planning experts believe that this initiative will test the KMC’s ability to enforce stringent norms while allowing hawkers to operate within designated vending zones. The distribution of vending certificates will also play a crucial role in improving the overall aesthetic and functionality of public spaces in the city.
The survey conducted in 2024 covered all 144 wards in the city and provided the final data needed for the distribution of certificates. Meanwhile, KMC has taken concrete steps to mark vending zones in popular areas like New Market and Gariahat, where drives have cleared carriageways and demarcated spaces for hawkers with yellow lines.
This move is seen as part of a broader strategy to improve public order and reduce traffic congestion, particularly in busy commercial hubs. However, experts caution that the success of the programme will rely heavily on consistent follow-up surveys, effective coordination with hawkers’ associations, and infrastructure upgrades to support growing demands for public space in a fast-expanding metropolis like Kolkata.
For the initiative to be successful, the KMC will need to demonstrate its capacity to expand coverage beyond the initial batch of hawkers and ensure that it remains responsive to emerging urban challenges. The authorities are also expected to release further updates on the progress of the distribution in the coming weeks.
