National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) today launched nationwide protests against growing violation of human rights on street vendors. A memorandum urging the government to protect livelihoods and democracy of street vendors was also submitted to the Union Home Minister at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
— National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) today launched nationwide protests against growing violation of human rights on street vendors. A memorandum urging the government to protect livelihoods and democracy of street vendors was also submitted to the Union Home Minister at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The protesters at the protest dharna also condemned the arrest and imprisonment of its national executive member Sanjay Chopra at Hardwar in Uttarakhand and demanded his immediate release. Mr. Chopra was arrested by the police while he was leading a vendor’s protest against scam in lottery allocation of spaces at Hardwar Municipality Committee office on November 30, 2010.
Addressing the protest dharna NASVI National Coordinator Arbind Singh expressed concern over the increasing violation of human rights of vendors and said, “Instead of implementing the National Policy for Street Vendors and showing commitments to honour the recent Supreme Court Verdict upholding the fundamental rights of vendors, the governments and their municipal bodies are engaged in evicting vendors and arresting vendors’ leaders. The authorities are partial toward big developers, big mall owners.”
The memorandum urges the government to ensure protection of livelihood and democracy of vendors; through effective legislation, zero tolerance on police violating human rights and responsive urban governance. A separate memorandum was also submitted to the Resident Commissioner, Uttarakhand. The memorandum demands that the National Policy for Street Vendors be implemented and municipal bodies must put a halt to the ongoing eviction drive in Haridwar and other cities.
As part of the nationwide agitation, a protest dharna was organized today at Jantar Mantar near Parliament Street which was led among others by NASVI Vice President Chandraprakash Singh, Irshad Ahmad and NASVI National Coordinator Arbind Singh. Representatives from several civil society organizations, such as Human Rights and Law Network (HRLN) and Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) also joined the protest. Similar protests were also organized by NASVI centers across the country.
Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire
Notes to Editor
About NASVI
Beginning as a Network in 1998, The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) was registered in 2003 under the Societies registration Act of 1860 to bring together the street vendor organizations in India so as to collectively struggle for macro-level changes which had become imminent to support the livelihood of around 10 million vendors which stand severely threatened due to outdated laws and changing policies, practices and attitudes of the powers that be .NASVI is a national federation of street vendor organizations. It is a coalition of Trade Unions, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and professionals. For more information please visit: http://www.nasvinet.org/index.php
For more information, please contact:
Yeindrila Das (Sr.Account Exicutive)