Mumbai hawker law's residency requirement targets migrants, vendors say
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MUMBAI - India's western Maharashtra state has passed a law requiring street hawkers to have lived in the state for 15 years before they can apply for a licence, in a move vendors say unfairly targets poor migrants.
Officials in Maharashtra's capital Mumbai this week passed the law, which also lists conditions for surveying vendors and demarcating hawking zones.
Workers' organisations say many hawkers, who have migrated from rural areas to Mumbai to seek work and escape poverty, cannot afford property in Mumbai, India's financial and commercial capital.
"Many hawkers have been here for generations, yet do not own homes and do not have domicile certificates. This is the state's way of pushing out these migrant workers without explicitly asking them to leave," said Salma Sheikh of the Azad Hawkers' Union.
