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News Archive Waste Pickers | Street Vendors | Home-based Workers | Mega Events | Global Economic Crisis | Informal Economy INDIA Scholarship forms submitted to social welfare department Times of India (31 Dec 2010) by The directorate of social welfare on Wednesday accepted 300 forms of waste pickers' children seeking the Union government's scholarship, after a protest march was taken out by the Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP). BRASIL. In The World: Turning old oil into new mileage. MIT News (24 Feb 11) Por David Chandler. Brazilian waste pickers gain an inexpensive way to fuel their vehicles using leftover cooking oil. INDIA. Indian Govt to Solve Issues Faced by Rag-pickers Waste Management World (29 Jan 2011). The Indian government would look into the problems faced by rag-pickers following mechanisation of waste disposal in urban areas, Indian Environment Minister Jayram Ramesh said on Saturday. Ramesh spoke at a two-day national conference organised by the Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers (AIW). EGYPT. Garbage recycling station set up in Tahrir SquareArabawy blog (25 Jan 11) Waste pickers in Egypt’s Tahrir Square recycle waste during demonstations. INDIA Garbage Wars Global Post (28 Jan 11) By Betwa Sharma For the SEWA cleaning program, each household pays 30 rupees (less than $1) per month for the pickup. The women earn 2,800 Rs. ($61) a month, which works out to just about the country’s minimum wage of Rs. 100 ($2) a day. “We wanted to show that waste collection and management can and should be inclusive … generate employment ... and also make the city clean,” said Renana Jhabvala, the head of SEWA. INDIA Day out for unsung heroes of city streets Times of India (26 Jan 2011) by Ambika Pandit Mohammed Nizam (15) is a rag picker at Nizamuddin Railway station where he mingles with the crowd day after day. While he goes about picking waste that can be sold for a living, his eyes look out for abandoned or runaway children on the platform. His observation and sensitivity have helped social workers here rescue quite a few vulnerable children. INDIA Indian Scavengers Doing What Officials Can't New York Times (21 Jan 2011) by Akash Kapur India generates more than 100 million tons of municipal waste a year. Across India, an army of scavengers and housewives and small traders collect, segregate and recycle garbage every day. Their efforts, and the economy they have built around waste, may represent a model, or at least a foundation, for a solution to the nation’s rising tide of garbage. NIGERIA Recycling Banks to Reduce Scavenging at Dumps in Lagos, Nigeria Waste Management World (13 Jan 2011) Nine recycling centres have been established and will also function as information and education centres on waste management. The managing director of the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) is encouraging residents to partner with LAWMA by using the centres to sort their waste, and claims that in doing so the business of scavenging at the dumpsites would gradually be eliminated, since there would be nothing left for them to sort. IRAQ Upon a Hill of Scraps: Surviving on Scavenging in Iraq New York Times (11 Jan 2011) by John Leland Examines the economic, social and physical difficulties associated with waste picking in Baghdad and the challenges of living in slums like Naser City, where many waste pickers live illegally ("the land is free but illegal"). INDIA Poor Medical Waste Disposal Standards Causing Health Problems in India Waste Management World (10 Jan 2011) The improper disposal of bio-medical waste by several health centres, mainly dental clinics, primary health centres, community health centres and diagnostic centres poses a health hazard to the general public, sanitation workers and rag pickers in the East Godavari District of the north coastal area of Andhra Pradesh. INDIA Worms help Powai hotels dispose of waste (9 Jan 2011) Hotel Rodas in Powai, India composts about 50kg of wet kitchen waste daily through the process of vermiculture, saving lakhs of rupees in garbage collection and disposal fees annually. The compost is then sold to local residential complexes, gardens and plant nurseries. MEXICO Recyclers Tout Benefits of Their Trade at Cancún Summit IPS (5 Dec 2010). By Emilio Godoy. Ezequiel Estay began collecting glass bottles in 1991 after losing his job with the Chilean media conglomerate Copesa. Now, years later, he heads Chile's National Movement of Recyclers and is a leader of the Latin American Recyclers' Network, which is questioning the climate benefits of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). MEXICO Scavengers Leave Dumps To Speak Out On UN Stage NPR (3 Dec 2010). By Mark Stevenson. Clambering over garbage heaps, rummaging through trash cans, Supriya Bhadakwad didn't set out to save the planet when she was 13 years old, just her family. But two decades later, in the global arena of climate negotiations, the sari-clad Indian woman and other waste pickers are making their voices heard, tilting with big corporate players in a tug-of-war over the world's dumpsites. BRAZIL End of an era for Rio garbage pickers CNN (1 Dec 2010). By Shanta Darlington. Some 2.4 million tons of urban waste has been buried in the Gramacho landfill every year for the last three decades but the landfill will close in 2012. The current landfill is being converted to a waste-to-energy project. INDIA Workshop arranged for ragpickers Times of India (1 Dec 2010). The Alliance of Indian Wastepickers (AIW), a group of 33 organisations working with wastepickers, and GAIA ( Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) organised a two-day workshop for wastepickers in the city on Tuesday to create awareness about the issues of waste and climate and the role of wastepickers. USA Waste Land Wins Audience Award at IDFA 2010 About.com (28 Nov 2010). By Jennifer Merin. Dutch and international audiences at IDFA 2010 selected Lucy Walker‘s Waste Land as their favorite documentary from about 300 films screened during the eleven days of this year‘s festival. BRAZIL/USA Green Grease Greengrease blog (13 Nov 2010). The Grease Project was launched by Rede CataSampa, MIT’s Community Innovators Lab, and MIT’s Biodiesel Club to create strategies for utilizing waste vegetable oil as fuel in Sao Paulo waste picker cooperatives. The solution marries a vehicle conversion technique designed to fit the needs of waste picker cooperatives with an implementation plan that extends into nine Brazilian cities. INDIA Swach Garbage Collection Initiative to Be Inaugurated Today Times of India (16 Oct 2010) Swach is an organisation formed by the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP). The members of Swach will collect segregated garbage from houses in 54 wards, covering 55 per cent population of the municipal limits. The PCMC spends Rs 5.91 crore on garbage collection in these wards, which will reduce after Swach starts functioning. INDIA Pune's waste picker speaks at UN climate change meet Times of India (16 Oct 2010) Baidabai Gaikwad, who collects waste in Fursungi area, attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) held in Tianjin, China, recently. "We told them how our recycling work is nature friendly and why all governments should take steps to increase recycling instead of burning the waste," said Gaikwad. CHINA Indian Waste Pickers Call on Waste Recycling in Tianjin People’s Daily Online (8 Oct 2010) Yue Yuewei Indian women waste pickers from Global Alliance of Waste Pickers and Allies call on waste recycling at Tianjin Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center, the venue of the UN Climate Change conference. CHINA Waste Pickers Offer Climate Change Solution AFP (7 Oct 2010) Karl Malakunas "We play a very important role in the environment, yet our work is not recognised," Maya Khodave normally spends her days rummaging through rubbish dumps in a crowded Indian city but this week she is in China to offer herself as part of the solution to tackling global warming. CHINA UN Meet: Indian Rag Pickers Demand Financial Support Sify (7 Oct 2010) Three Indian rag pickers Wednesday addressed the UN climate change conference in China and demanded financial support for their contribution in fighting climate change. INDIA Street vendors’ association protests unfair treatment Sify (5 Oct 2010) The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) has criticised the government for evicting nearly one lakh street vendors from the streets of Delhi before the start of the CWG. INDIA Labourers Rendered Homeless for CWG Clean-up IBN Live (30 Sep 2010) When the Commonwealth Games just round the corner, the government tried to spruce up the city by removing all the migrant labourers and homeless people from the streets of Delhi. INDIA It's Right to Boycott the Commonwealth Games The Gaurdian (28 Sep 2010) Kapil Komireddi From child labour to forced evictions, the cruelty of India's Commonwealth Games means spectators should stay away. INDIA CWG: Cops ask hawkers & vendors to pack up TNN (28 Sep 2010) Ruhi Bhasin & Dwaipayan Ghosh Finding vegetable vendors or going to the local dhaba is becoming an increasingly difficult task in the city. In an attempt to clean up the capital and also rule out security threats before the Games, civic agencies, along with Delhi Police, are going all out to remove "illegal" vendors across the city. BRAZIL Interview with Sonia Dias. OTempo (27 Sept. 2010) Sonia Dias, Waste Sector Specialist with WIEGO was recently interviewed by OTempo Newspaper in Brazil for an article on Brazil’s National Policy on Waste Management. This interview is now available in Portuguese and English on the Waste Pickers and Climate Change blog. The complete original article including the interview with Sonia Dias is available on OTempo’s website. INDIA Quest for Games’ Chauvinism: Labour Bore the Brunt Vattal (27 Sep 2010) Napur Basu In the post-mortem that will follow in the coming weeks and months regarding what went wrong in the preparedness for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010, one area where more skeletons are likely to tumble out will be the plight of thousands of poor labourers who worked on the project sites. INDIA Running on the Backs of Children: the Commonwealth Games' Secret Suite 101 (26 Sep 2010) Edmund Kwaw Kwaw’s article alleges that the Commonwealth Games athletes' village and other venues were constructed with the aid of child labour. INDIA ‘Billions’ Vanish into Thin Air in ‘Incredible India’ Khaleej Times (25 Sep 2010) Moni Mathews Corruption and money laundering in the CWG. INDIA Labourers ‘Deported’ for Games Clean-up Hindustan Times (25 Sep 2010) Karan Choudhury and Jatin Anand Police forced daily-wagers and migrant labourers to leave in a drive to apparently ‘clean up’ the city for the Commonwealth Games. INDIA Verification Drive Scares Off Apparel Unit Workers Times of India (24 Sep 2010) Security verification of migrant workers by the Gurgaon police ahead of the Commonwealth Games has led to a huge exodus of migrant workers, affecting many apparel manufacturing units across the city. INDIA The human cost of hosting the Commonwealth Games Infochange (Aug, 2010) Parliament witnessed noisy scenes and adjournments over alleged financial irregularities in preparations for the Commonwealth Games. But the human cost of hosting the games in the national capital that is struggling to get ready for the event in the face of rising costs and criticism may be far more serious. INDIA Delhi Street Vendors Evicted Before Commonwealth Game BBC News (20 Aug 2010) Geeta Pandey Every day for the past 30 years, Ram Prakash has been selling fruit in Delhi's Sarojini Nagar market. With the Commonwealth Games underway, Ram Prakash and many others like him have been asked to take their business elsewhere. GERMANY UN incineration plans rejected by world's rubbish-dump workers Guardian (5 Aug 2010) The waste-pickers who scour the world's rubbish dumps and daily recycle thousands of tonnes of metal, paper and plastics are up in arms against the UN, which they claim is forcing them out of work and increasing climate change emissions. Their complaint, heard in Bonn where UN global climate change talks have resumed, is that the clean development mechanism (CDM), an ambitious climate finance scheme designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, has led to dozens of giant waste-to-energy incinerators being built to burn municipal rubbish, as well as hundreds of new landfill schemes designed to collect methane gas. "Waste-pickers, who are some of the poorest people on earth, recover recyclable materials. They are invisible entrepreneurs on the frontline of climate change, earning a living from recovery and recycling, reducing demand for natural resources," says Neil Tangri, director of Gaia, an alliance of 500 anti-incinerator groups in 80 countries. ARGENTINA Cardboard Collectors of Buenos Aires Thinking Outside the Box Irish Times (5 Apr 2010) In a country where landfills are bulging and recycling is in its infancy, these urban recuperators – as they are known in politically correct conversation – are having a positive impact on the city’s waste management problems. Cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, metal and other materials are diverted from municipal dumps and converted into income for the cartoneros. The government has made moves to formalise the activity by establishing an urban recuperators’ register, providing individuals with workwear and credentials, and encouraging the creation of co-operatives. INDIA Green-Collar Opportunity LiveMint (4 Apr 2010) In India, we have an opportunity to engage in city waste disposal, in ways that can be environmentally safe as well as provide livelihoods to the hard-pressed worker in the informal sector. Enter the more than 1.5 million scrap and waste collectors who earn their livelihood from the collection of paper, plastic, metal and glass scrap for sale to recycling industries. They are now a loose association across India, and through organized collective bargaining, are shaking off middlemen and trying to be their own recyclers and traders. They call themselves green-collar workers. URUGUAY Improving Conditions for Waste Pickers IPS (26 Mar 2010) One of Uruguay Clasifica's aims is to generate conditions to keep children and adolescents in school, or help dropouts return to the educational system, by providing a small cash stipend for families whose children attend school. Uruguay Clasifica is also focusing on training and on improving working conditions, as well as carrying out an awareness-raising campaign. It has begun handing out uniforms to garbage sorters, and distributing pamphlets that explain the work that they do and how to separate household trash. INDIA Nation-wide Rally to Demand Rights of Waste Collectors (9 Mar 2010) Times of India They collect garbage from your door-step, sort it out without the aid of any safety gears and earn their livelihood selling paper, plastic, metal and glass to recycling industries... They help reduce the burden on landfills... However, they are treated with neglect and indifference by the government and the society at large. INDIA Trash pickers in India "Go to Waste" (2 Mar 2010) Marketplace As India asserts itself as a rising power, its capital city is feeling the urge to spruce up its new image. New Delhi is hiring private contractors to collect trash from the streets. But that move isn't good for everyone. Includes insights from Bharati Chaturvedi, director for Chintan, a charity that supports waste pickers. Where dreams are endless Snehal Sonawane Sawant | TNN. (25 Feb 2010) Pune: Just as a doctor’s son aspires to become a doctor, son/daughter of a waste-picker would become a waste-picker, it was assumed. But not any more as the scenario is changing steadily. “Waste Land” Takes Berlinale Panorama Honors IndieWire (20 Feb 2010) Waste Land follows Brazilian artist Vik Muniz who travels to Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. He collaborates with an eclectic band of catadores, or self-designated pickers of recyclable materials, and photographs these them as they recycle their lives and society’s garbage. TMA to compensate 394 scavengers to start waste management project Ghana News Agency (20 Jan 2010) The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) is to compensate and re-settle some 394 people engaged in stone quarrying at the Kpone landfill site. KKPKP puts forth the merits of recycling at Copenhagen Times of India (9 Dec 2009) Recycling is one of the easiest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This was one of the points driven home by Laxmi Narayan, general secretary of the Pune-based Kaagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), an organisation that works for the rights of ragpickers, at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, on Monday. Wastepickers of the world unite at climate talks AFP (8 Dec 2009) Ignored, marginalised or despised in many countries, wastepickers from Asia, Latin America and Africa have come together in Copenhagen to lobby for recognition as unsung heroes in the fight against climate change. Waste Pickers Demand Recognition for Doing the Dirty Work IPS (8 Dec 2009) Members of the Global Network of Waste Pickers say recognising the work they do recycling rubbish can make a valuable contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Cambodia's rubbish dump scavengers(BBC online news, Aug 14, 2009) Attempts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) are negatively impacting waste pickers. Baida Gaekwad of Pune's KKPKP explains how recycling, not incineration, is a better means to reducing greenhouse gasses. Ragpickers lose jobs as world tackles climate change. The Hindu (June 10, 2009) Poornima Chikarmane of KKPKP writes about the connection between waste pickers and climate change. Street Recyclers – Holding Back Climate Change. eco (June 2009) Waste Disposal in Columbia Muck and Brass Plates. Economist (Jun 11, 2009) Delhi’s Belly | Beyond the trash can. LiveMint.com (Apr 18, 2009) China’s Big Recycling Market Is Sagging. New York Times (Mar 12, 2009) Talking rubbish. Economist (Feb 26th 2009) EL SALVADOR. “Street Vendors Defend Right to Make a Living in San Salvador.” Inter-Press Service. (22 Dec 10). By Edgardo Ayala. Street vendors in San Salvador seek ways to resist the imminent eviction that forms part of the city government’s urban renewal plan. Since June, the mayor has ordered the forced eviction of 1,053 hawkers as part of an attempt to regulate street vending. SRI LANKA. Pavement Hawkers Get New Places of Business. Daily Mirror (26 Feb 11). Pavement hawkers who were evicted from the vicinities of Pettah, Norris Canal Road and Deans Road would be relocated after several building complexes come up at Norris Canal Road, the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) said yesterday. HONG KONG. Vendors Fume at Tax Hike. The Standard (25 Feb 11). A higher tobacco tax may force more street vendors out of business, a hawkers' association warns. Tobacco duty was raised by 50 cents per cigarette stick in the budget, and the Hong Kong Association of Newspaper Hawkers said the increase - HK$10 per packet - will sharply lower their profit margin and more people will turn to cheaper illicit cigarettes. INDIA. Yale Law School Clinic Helps Indian Street Vendors. Yale Daily News (25 Feb 11). Yale Law School’s Transnational Development Clinic found that governments should not try to prohibit street vending in places where it naturally occurs because it is “a recipe for failure.” The law clinic has been working in partnership with the Self Employed Women’s Association of India since September. SOUTH AFRICA. Street Trader Aims High. Sowetan (25 Feb 11). Mabaleha, a street trader outside Marabastad railway station in downtown Pretoria, recently applied for the new Absa Hawkers Loan of R450. The loan has helped increase his stock, and when he pays it off, he intends to apply for another credit which will allow him to open another table in the Pretoria CBD. ARMENIA. Dismantling Street Trade: Municipality Offers 3,000 Sites, but Traders Still Object. Armenia Now (24 Feb 11). Street traders in Yerevan unseated from their improvised stores and open-air selling points continue their protests despite the offer by the city’s municipality of sales counters at any of 30 enclosed markets. Members coordinating the protesting group of street traders issued a statement on Wednesday in which they say that wholesale markets are not an alternative for them. USA. Street Vendors Warned of Sweeps in Van Nuys. San Fernando Valley Sun (24 Feb 11). Antonio Bernabe of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) showed up early morning last week at an ice cream depot in North Hollywood with a warning for them about recent sweeps at locations where street vendors frequent. Bernabe and others who work at immigrant rights organizations take issue with police acting in the capacity of immigration officials. INDIA. Delhi Plans New Law for Street Vendors. Indian Express (23 Feb 11). Delhi has begun working on a new law to regulate the functioning of lakhs of vendors, who set up shop in every nook and corner of the Capital. A special committee was created on Friday, with Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta as its head, to prepare a draft legislation that would set the norms for governing street trade. INDIA. Imphal Street Vendors Agitate Over Allocation of Place in Market. Times of India (22 Feb 11). Over 400 women traders staged a protest at Nagamapal in protest against the government's move of holding a lottery to allot seats to street vendors in the temporary market shed. Leaders of the agitating vendors, belonging to Nagamapal Women Street Vendors' Association, Khwai Ima Keithel and Punshi Keithel Women Vendors' Association, said over 10,000 street vendors have come to claim their place in the temporary market. "Many of them are not genuine street vendors and that they were being helped by some politicians," the leaders said. MALAYSIA. Hawkers Join City Council in Market Clean-Up. The Malay Mail (22 Feb 11). Around 100 hawkers joined PJ City Council (MBPJ) staff yesterday morning in a cleanup operation in SS2 here, after the area was selected to compete in the State government's Clean Zone programme. SS2 morning market representative Leng Chin Huat believed such joint activities enable hawkers to work closely with the local council to keep the market clean. SWAZILAND. Licenses, IDs for Street Vendors. Observer (22 Feb 11). Street vendors will now be required to apply for trading licenses. After getting the trading license, they will be provided with identity cards which will specify the food they will be allowed to sell. USA. Street Food Vendors Want Overhaul of Rules. Atlanta Journal-Constitution (21 Feb 11). The president of the Atlanta Street Food Coalition says he plans to meet with Fulton County and Atlanta officials later this week in an attempt to unravel the bureaucratic maze facing street vendors. The issue came to a head Saturday when an inspector from the Fulton County Office of Environmental Health Services shut down two street food stands in Poncey-Highland – El Burro Pollo and the Atlanta Fry Guy – during the lunch rush for lacking permits. Outside food sales have been catching on in the corridor, and outraged regulars have been sounding off on the Fry Guy’s Twitter feed. SOUTH AFRICA. ABSA to Offer Monthly Loans to Hawkers. Independent Online (18 Feb 11). ABSA has launched a new initiative that will offer loans to hawkers. The pilot hawker loan project would first be offered to customers of the Tshwane Fresh Produce Market, and it would run until June, Absa said yesterday. INDIA. Harvard Students to Work with Planning Commission, Guj Gov. Times of India (17 Feb 11). Students from Harvard University will head to India this summer to work with various government and non-profit organisations, including the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and the National Alliance of Street Vendors of India (NASVI). BANGLADESH. Bangladesh Eyes World Cup for Image Boost. AFP / Google News (15 Feb 11). Bangladesh has spruced up its capital Dhaka for the World Cup as it seeks to take advantage of a prime opportunity to rebrand a country often known only for devastating floods and cyclones. Beggars have been paid to stay off roads, hawkers have been evicted from overcrowded pavements and buildings given a new coat of paint. THAILAND. B5bn Loan Scheme Launched. Bangkok Post (14 Feb 11). Five banks will offer loans totalling five billion baht to taxi drivers and street vendors at fair interest rates, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said on Monday. CHINA. Hawkers Protest Rent Adjustments. China Daily (12 Feb 2011). Street market hawkers protested the government's adjustment of rents Friday in front of the Central Government Offices. In an open letter to Financial Secretary John Tsang, members of Federation of Hong Kong Kowloon New Territories Hawker Associations objected to the government's policy that street market rents will be adjusted in accordance with market prices and demanded that the government freeze street market rents for a year. USA. Street Vendors Fight Super-Sized Penalties Handed Down by Bloomberg Administration. New York Daily News (9 Feb 2011). By Albor Ruiz. The Bloomberg administration has taken aim at the city’s street vendors with a vengeance. ARMENIA. Yerevan Street Sellers Protest Trading Ban. Institute for War & Peace Reporting. (4 Feb 2011). Street traders who eke out a living by selling fruit, vegetables and other items from open-air stalls in the Armenian capital Yerevan are outraged at a new city order banning their businesses. For several weeks now, hundreds of traders have gathered outside the municipal buildings, calling for Yerevan’s mayor Karen Karapetian to reverse the ban, which took effect on January 13. GUYANA. A street vendor led to the Tunisian Velvet Revolution. (4 Feb 2011) In Guyana, over three hundred street vendors were forcibly removed from their selling base one evening. No one in the Government of Guyana gave them warning or notice. INDIA. “Finally hawkers to get space in new complexes.” Times of India (4 Feb 2011) More than four months after three hawkers’ complexes were inaugurated, corporation commissioner D. Karthikeyan said on Thursday that vendors would be allotted space in the complexes in a week. The multi-storied buildings are expected to accommodate more than 1, 185 hawkers identified for relocation in 2003. RUSSIA. “Kiosk owners fear for their future.” The Moscow News. (2 Feb 2011) City officials have presented new regulations on where to put street vendors – but players in the industry say these are bad for both customers and businesses. ARMENIA. “Ombudsman of Armenia considers the struggle against street trade conducted in a wrong way in Yerevan.” Arka News Agency. (2 Feb 2011) The Ombudsman of Armenia thinks that the authorities should give people an opportunity to get information on the solution of the street vending issue. BANGLADESH. “No Hawkers, Beggars in Bangladesh City Ahead of Cricket World Cup.” CNN. (26 Jan 11). Hundreds of hawkers and beggars, quite often seen on Dhaka’s major roads and at traffic stops, will be driven out next month ahead of the Cricket World Cup scheduled to begin in mid February. ARMENIA. “Yerevan Municipality Determined to End Street Trade.” Arka News Agency. (25 Jan 11). The Yerevan municipal administration is determined to continue the fight against illegal street trade, mayor Karen Karapetian told Monday the Council of Elders (the city’s legislative assembly). The new mayor ordered the ban on street trade shortly after taking office a month ago. The ban caused angry protests of street vendors who say they have lost their sole source of income. INDIA. “Street Vendors Decide to Reclaim their Space.” The Hindu. (24 Jan 11). An estimated 200 street vendors, who had been forcibly evicted from their place of business, have planned to resume their vending space on the pavements here on Monday. The street vendors cater to the most marginalised communities, by making food and basic commodities affordable. TUNISIA Slap to a Man’s Pride Set Off Tumult in Tunisia (21 Jan 2010) New York Times By Kareem Fahim Mohamed Bouazizi spent his whole life on a dusty, narrow street here, in a tiny, three-room house with a concrete patio where his mother hung the laundry and the red chilis to dry. By the time Mr. Bouazizi was 26, his work as a fruit vendor had earned him just enough money to feed his mother, uncle and five brothers and sisters at home. On the morning of Dec. 17, when other vendors say an official tried to confiscate Mr. Bouazizi’s fruit, and then slapped him in the face for trying to yank back his apples, he became the hero — now the martyred hero — and she became the villain in a remarkable swirl of events in which Tunisians have risen up to topple a 23-year dictatorship and march on, demanding radical change in their government. MEXICO. “Mexico’s Street Vendors Go Solar.” Reuters. (20 Dec 10) By Tara Cleary. Roadside food vendors in Mexico’s Oaxaca are re-fitting gas-powered food stalls with solar technology. It’s all thanks to efforts of a Swiss solar cooking pioneer who wants to change the world once street cart at a time. TRINIDAD Chaguanas Vendors Protest. Trinidad Express Newspapers. (4 Dec 2010). By Keino Swamber. Protest erupted outside the CEPEP Headquarters in Chaguanas yesterday after a group of disgruntled street vendors objected to being omitted from a list of those entitled to a spot at the soon-to-be-opened vendors facility. INDIA MCD yet to get fire clearance for civic centre. The Times of India. (1 Dec 2010). Taking on the MCD in Delhi Assembly on Tuesday, urban development minister Dr AK Walia asserted that the civic agency needs to speed up the process to regularize the five lakh (approximate) street vendors and squatters in the capital. EL SALVADOR Salvadoran street vendors protest urban renewal plan. Fox News Latino. (1 Dec 2010). Scores of Salvadoran street vendors marched on Wednesday to the Spanish Embassy in this capital to urge Spain to stop funding an urban renewal plan in San Salvador that the merchants say is jeopardizing their livelihoods. COLOMBIA Medellín street vendors receive English training. Colombia Reports. (30 Nov 2010). A group of 83 street vendors who operate in Medellín’s tourist areas will receive a certificate in conversational English on Tuesday, says a press release from the city. CHINA “Cost of living hikes spur outpouring of street vendors.” Shanghai Daily. (26 Nov 2010). By Xu Chi. University Town, a student suburb on the fringes of Shanghai, is known as a good place to find bargains. Yet even here, the rising cost of living is biting. That’s spawned a big increase in the number of street vendors pitching process much lower than in supermarkets and small stores. RUSSIA “Street Politics.” Russia Profile. (25 Nov2010). By Andrew Roth. The dust has settled after government officials wiped over 2.000 carts and kiosks from Moscow’s streets in a whirlwind campaign during the first two weeks of November. Amid concerns over lack of due process, an oversight by the city government has further angered small business owners and organizations: no official order was given by the city government to undertake the massive campaign to close the kiosks. KOREA “Shinhan provides micro-credit service for street vendors.” The Korea Times. (23 Nov 2010). Shinhan Babnk, well known for its active engagement in social corporate responsibility, has provided a total of 3.7 billion won in loans for 360 low-income street vendors since it launched its first branch in December 2009. SSMB has opened branches near traditional markets to support street vendors and small business owners, who need a small amount of seed money. INDIA “Street vendors want livelihood back.” The Hindu. (23 Nov 2010). Street vendors from Shivajinagar, Ulsoor and Gandhinagar staged a dharna at the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike head office protesting against the civic authority’s apathy in restoring them their means of livelihood. CHINA “Kunming proposes reforms to chengguan procedures.” Kunming News (translated by gokunming.com) (22 Nov 2010). Beatings, riots and even death have been the result in the past when Kunming’s city management officers have tried to confiscate property from unlicensed street vendors. But now, in an apparent attempt to stem such events and repair the oft-derided management officers’ tarnished image, the department that oversees them has proposed a new curb on confiscations. INDIA “Evicted hawkers left high and dry.” (22 Nov2010). Over 600 hawkers were evicted four months ago by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. Members of street vendors’ associations across Bangalore staged a protest on Monday. The Mayor has said that a meeting would be held with the associations on December 15 on accommodating street vendors on pavements. Street vendors want the BBMP to reframe its regulation in accordance with the Supreme Court judgment and the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors of 2009. RUSSIA “Moscow street sales slump.” RIA Novosti. (18 Nov 2010). Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s enthusiastic campaign to clear Moscow of kiosks and other street vendors, one of his first initiatives since taking office, has hit local small businesses and even inflicted losses on major beer and chocolate producers. INDIA “Vendors to launch agitation.” The Telegraph (Calcutta). (15 Nov2010). Three days after UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated three newly constructed women’s markets here, women street vendors here have raised the pitch for proper accommodation. USA Street Vendors Cost the City Millions Wall Street Journal. (10 Nov 2010) By Melanie Grayce West. Street vendors are costing the city millions in enforcement and in uncollected fines. Roughly $14.9 million dollars in fines went uncollected as of Dec. 15, 2009. Permitting, regulation and enforcement of vendors cost the city at least $7.4 million in fiscal year 2009, with most of the cost attributed to the police's street peddling enforcement unit, according to the nonpartisan Independent Budget Office. IVORY COAST Welcoming Oikicredit to the UK Divine Delights blog (4 Nov 2010) Oikocredit, an international development finance organization launched in the UK last week, loaned 2 million Euros to a cooperative of 200 women street vendors to build a covered market. The project, described by Oikocredit’s regional manager from Ivory Coast, Mariam Dao, enabled the women to build a new market with the advice of an architect, set up a crèche, and hire additional employees. INDIA Mission to organise street vendors into a potent force The Hindu (3 Nov 2010) by Jiby Kattakayam Activists working to organise street vendors in India and South Africa were faced with a similar problem this year: both countries, holding mega-sporting events -- namely the FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth Games -- decided that street vendors had to be “made to disappear” during the sport extravaganza. Pat Horn, chief of StreetNet International, a global alliance of street vendors and community-based organisations with presence in 37 countries, blames the eviction of street vendors in both countries on the absence of legislation to protect their livelihood. INDIA Many Committees But No Solution to Vendor Woes The Times of India. (2 Nov 2010 ) Despite years of planning, majority of street vendors in the city are still awaiting allotment of vending sites by civic agencies. Various committees formed at the local and state level to identify sites across the city failed to make any headway and vendors continue to face harassment by government agencies, said National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI). INDIA Law to Regulate Hawking Rights Soon Indo-Asian News Service (1 Nov 2010) The government Monday assured street vendors that it will soon frame laws to regulate hawking rights in five states including Delhi. ZIMBABWE City clamps down on vendors Times Live. (31 Oct 2010) The Harare City Council has launched a blitz on newspaper vendors, which involves hardened municipal police officers who confiscate newspapers. The blitz launched last Sunday involved the confiscation of newspapers from roadside vendors. INDIA Street vendors form human chain. The Times of India. (31 Oct 2010) Several street vendors and hawkers of Lanka area formed a humanchain in Assi in protest against the anti-encroachment policies of district administration on Sunday. INDIA Street vendors meet in Delhi next month Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). (28 Oct 2010) The head of StreetNet International, a global alliance of street vendors' associations, will come down to Delhi Nov 1 to hold talks with street vendors to understand their problems and suggest solutions. Pat Horn, the head of StreetNet International, will hold consultations with the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) - an umbrella organisation of other smaller groups of street vendors across the country - Nov 1. KENYA New Constitution a Victory for Kenyans (28 October 2010) KENASVIT blog. KENASVIT national chairman Simon Sangale Ole Nasieku explains what the new constitution and the referendum mean to the workers in Kenya. LEBANON Campaigns kick off to free sidewalks for pedestrians The Daily Star. (27 Oct 2010) In the northern coastal city of Tripoli, the municipality decided to free sidewalks from intruders and gave street vendors a notice to clear their products by the end of October. The decision was faced with a wave of objections, as merchants insisted they would not leave their positions before an alternative was provided. INDIA Respect Right of Street Vendors: Supreme Court The Times of India (22 Oct 2010) Declaring hawking a fundamental right, the Supreme Court has asked the government to come out with a proper law by June 2011 to regulate hawkers’ rights, which often come into conflict with commuters’ rights to roads and streets, a release from Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) said on Thursday. INDIA. Policy Cannot Regulate Hawking, Bring in Law by June 2011, Supreme Court Tells Centre. The Times of India (20 Oct 2010). By Dhananjay Mahapatra. After trying for over a decade to stem the urban chaos resulting from hawkers and pedestrians vying for space on shrinking pavements, the Supreme Court has finally given up and asked the Centre to bring in a law latest by June 30, 2011 to regulate hawking rights. INDIA. NASVI Hails Supreme Court Verdict on Street Vendors and Calls for Comprehensive Central Legislation on Lines of NREGA to Protect and Promote Livelihood Democracy of Vendors Web Newswire (20 Oct 2010). The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), a leading voice of more than 540 street vendor organizations across 23 states of the country, has hailed the Supreme Court verdict on vendors’ fundamental right to carry on their business and has demanded that Indian Parliament must enact a comprehensive legislation on the lines of NREGA to protect and promote livelihoods of more than 10 million vendors of the country. INDIA Hawkers' Fundamental Right Can't Be Left in Limbo: Court The Hindu (20 Oct 2010) J. Venkatesan The Supreme Court of India while re-affirming hawking as a fundamental constitutional right has directed the Delhi Govt. to enact a law by 30th June, 2011. Though, the Model street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill 2009 is more spatial than social in character, associations of street vendors have been demanding making this model bill into a national law. INDIA Extension of Health Benefits to Street Vendors. Statement by the Government of India (20 Oct 2010) The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal by the India Ministry of Labour & Employment for extension of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) to street vendors. The RSBY scheme, which presently extends to below poverty line (BPL) families is Smart Card based cashless health insurance scheme. Street vendors who form an important segment of unorganised workers in urban areas will now be covered under RSBY. JAMAICA. Clean-up operation catches Beckford Street vendors by surprise. Jamaica Observer (19 Oct 2010). By Corey Robinson. DOZENS of vendors in downtown Kingston, yesterday watched helplessly as their stalls were destroyed as a major police operation to clean the streets of the busy shopping hub continued into a fifth day. JAMAICA. Mayor Meets Vendors, Promises Better Accommodation in Markets. Jamaica Information Service (17 Oct 2010). Mayor of Kingston, Senator Desmond McKenzie, assured angry downtown Kingston street vendors on Friday (October 15) that new facilities are being created by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) to accommodate their removal from the streets by the police. JAMAICA. Police Demolish Street Kiosks In Capital Bloomberg Businessweek / The Associated Press (14 Oct 2010). By David McFadden. Police bulldozed more than 1,000 makeshift vending stalls in downtown Kingston on Thursday, leaving street merchants seething with rage and wondering how they will eke out a living. MALAWI. Operation Dongsolo Back: Buying From Street Vendors To Be An Offence. Malawi Voice (12 Oct 2010). Lilongwe City Council says it is drafting a piece of legislation that would make buying from street vendors an offence. Currently laws of the land only criminalise street vending but not buying from street vendors. NEPAL Ban on street vending to be lifted during festivals Republica (29 Sep 2010) Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has decided to allow street vendors to operate their businesses in the location of their choice during the festive season of Dashain and Tihar. A proposal submitted by a delegation of vendors demanding that they be allowed to operate their businesses has been approved by the Metropolitan Police, Bishnu Joshi, Inspector of Metro Police said. Currently, Kathmandu is home to around 25,000 street hawkers, of which most had come during the Maoists insurgency. LAOS Losing the battle on the streets Next (26 Sep 2010) In spite of the fact that street trading has been outlawed in Lagos for over a year now, traders are still seen in virtually all streets and roads of the city hawking goods. They are mostly seen in crawling traffic, which happens quite often. Due to the anti-street trading law, traders now look over their shoulders to watch out for officers of Kick Against Indiscipline, who have been enforcing the law; arresting culprits and seizing their goods. USA NYC Vendors are Eyes and Ears on the Street Associated Press (5 May 2010) Ask a street vendor, and you'll hear that it's no surprise that it was guys hawking their wares who noticed a car in Times Square parked where it shouldn't have been. Street sellers Lance Orton and Duane Jackson saw the SUV last weekend, keys in the ignition but no driver in sight. They notified police, who investigated what turned out to be a potential bomb. Since then, the vendors have been thanked by everyone from others on the street to President Barack Obama. USA Keep Our Eyes on the Street Open Huffington Post (5 May 2010) While you usually don't hear the words street vendor and hero uttered in the same breath, just two weeks after the Bloomberg administration proposed to drastically cut the number of art vendors allowed in four popular city parks, two Times Square vendors (and Vietnam veterans) are being hailed as heroes for alerting police officers to a suspicious-looking abandoned Nissan Pathfinder, packed with explosives, near the tourist-clogged intersection of Broadway and 45th Street.The scene could have come straight out of Jane Jacob's The Death and Life of American Cities, the classic book published in 1961 that has influenced how generations of urban planners think about city street life. Jacobs herself would have called these hero street vendors "public characters" who make streets safer because they have their "eyes upon the street." USA T-Shirt Vendor Takes On New Persona: Reluctant Hero of Times Square NY Times (2 May 2010) The T-shirt vendor who alerted the police to the bomb in Times Square spoke to officers Sunday morning. About 12 hours had passed since a T-shirt vendor in Times Square had alerted police to a suspicious S.U.V. that was packed with a bomb. But by 7 a.m. Sunday, with the S.U.V. towed away and the streets safe and reopened, the vendor was tired, cranky and reluctant to say much about his feat. Thousands of Traders Might Lose Jobs as Market Turns into Mall. Inter Press Service News Agency (Apr 20, 2009) USA Oakland Park Delays Vote on Law Targeting Street Vendors, Beggars Sun Sentinel (8 Apr 2010) Dare to buy red roses or a gray newspaper from a street peddler in Oakland Park, and you may be breaking the law. That's if commissioners give final approval in June to a city law that would also make it illegal to give beggars or street vendors money or any "article of value" on an Oakland Park street. Violators would face a fine or up to 90 days in jail. INDIA Street Vendor Census on the Cards in Ahmedabad DNA (8 Apr 2010) The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has finally begun the work of organising street vendors. Results of the survey will help in defining a better planning strategy. Trading Markets for Malls. Mail and Guardian (Apr 07, 2009) ARGENTINA Cardboard Collectors of Buenos Aires Thinking Outside the Box Irish Times (5 Apr 2010) In a country where landfills are bulging and recycling is in its infancy, these urban recuperators – as they are known in politically correct conversation – are having a positive impact on the city’s waste management problems. Cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, metal and other materials are diverted from municipal dumps and converted into income for the cartoneros. The government has made moves to formalise the activity by establishing an urban recuperators’ register, providing individuals with workwear and credentials, and encouraging the creation of co-operatives. INDIA Green-Collar Opportunity LiveMint (4 Apr 2010) In India, we have an opportunity to engage in city waste disposal, in ways that can be environmentally safe as well as provide livelihoods to the hard-pressed worker in the informal sector. Enter the more than 1.5 million scrap and waste collectors who earn their livelihood from the collection of paper, plastic, metal and glass scrap for sale to recycling industries. They are now a loose association across India, and through organized collective bargaining, are shaking off middlemen and trying to be their own recyclers and traders. They call themselves green-collar workers. INDIA Delegation of Street Vendors of India Reaches Berhampur The Hindu (4 Apr 2010) The delegation of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), which is now on a nation-wide campaign for the protection of rights of street vendors reached the city on April 3rd. This campaign had started from New Delhi on November 25 last year with an aim to unite all street vendors of the country for the protection of their livelihood and lives. NASVI is a national federation of street vendors from across India. BRAZIL Brazilian Crackdown: It’s Giuliani-Time as Rio de Janeiro Goes for the Gold The Indypendent (2 Apr 2010) Ever since Rio de Janeiro learned it would host the 2016 Olympics, police have begun shutting down colorfully painted street vendor stands that line the city’s famous beaches. Vendors are told that in order to regain their livelihoods they must apply for and secure a license. If they’re allowed to return, they’ll have to operate out of a generic white tent. INDIA In the Name of the Games Dawn.com (30 Mar 2010) What cannot be removed must be covered – such is the policy of the Indian government towards the country's slums as Delhi gets ready to host the Commonwealth Games in October 2010. Government officials had initially said the games could benefit slum-dwellers as they would be provided with better homes ahead of the event. But on the ground, the reality seems to be different. India Loses If Women And Girls Aren't Allowed To Fulfill Their Potential (8 Mar 2010) Huffington Post Article by Ela Bhatt, SEWA founder and a member of The Elders. INDIA A Harsh View From The Sidewalk (8 Mar 2010) Times of India NEW DELHI: You can't tell the hardship she faces from her cackle of a laugh. Her face is creased with tiny lines, there's no hope in her eyes, no twinkle, no spark, certainly no fight. Triveni Devi is verily the face of urban poverty but she manages to laugh at her fate. A vegetable vendor, on a good day, she could make Rs 50 to Rs 75 selling potatoes and tomatoes, but now there are stretches of no income whatsoever. INDIA NASVI Holds Women Vendors’ Meet (8 Mar 2010) Indian Express The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), a national federation of street vendors across India, held a women vendors’ meet to create a common platform to raise their voice against harassment by the police and demand basic rights that protect their livelihoods and their lives.
SOUTH AFRICA It's A Hard Life On The Streets (7 Mar 2010) Times Live Joburg is cleaning up its pavements for the 2010 World Cup, but for the smallest of small businesses this is bad news, writes Tsidi Bishop. Small Premiums, Long-term Benefits: Why Poor Women Need Microinsurance (6 Mar 2010) MyNews. In 15 years have passed since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing decided on a global platform for action on gender equality and women’s empowerment. For poor women in developing countries, microinsurance coverage is an important safety net, providing a powerful tool to protect their households and productive assets. In India, a program is meeting women’s unique needs in a sensitive, sustainable way. SEWA Bank offers its clients – all self-employed poor women – a choice of three microinsurance schemes covering death, health and assets. INDIA How Long Before Hawking Zone Policy is Implemented? Ahmedabad Mirror USA Bathroom Rule Rankles Vendors New York Times (23 Feb 2010) More than 20 street vendors gathered outside the headquarters of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday to protest a policy that bans vendors from leaving their carts, even for bathroom breaks. SOUTHERN AFRICA: Women Traders Demand Support IPS (19 Feb 2010) "This year we want them to recognise that cross border traders contribute to the GDP (gross domestic product) and put in place legal frameworks which protect us because there is a lot of harassment by government officials during transit," Charity Mombeshora, the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Association's secretary for gender and women's affairs told IPS. Chicago street vendors demand relief from high fines, police crackdown Medill Reports (18 Feb 2010) Chicago's street vendors battle the cold, high fines and even jail time to make a living. SEWA demands inclusion of street vendors in Bhadra development plan Indian Express (7 Feb 2010) Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) has welcomed restoration of around 350 vendors in the Bhadra area on Saturday after the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had barred them from doing business in the area since January 24. The premier trade union outfit has demanded the inclusion of vendors in the Bhadra Fort area development plan. Cubans Thank God and Communist Party for Small Favors ABC News (2 Feb 2010) Cuban Communist Party Makes it Easier to Acquire Food Vending License "For a long time when you picked fruit from your patio and went to sell it on the highway, the police would appear, jump all over you, and take it away, when really we were doing nothing wrong," he said. "You can imagine what it means to be able to bring our fruit here and not have that struggle. The fruit no longer rots on the trees, the animals no longer eat it, Cubans eat it." Students from Denmark write about their experiences with Kenasvit kenasvit.wordpress.com (2 Feb 2010) Through six weeks in Kenya, we learned how the members are facing a range of different challenges such as land and space issues, lack of water and sanitation at the work place, harassment, lack of security and lack of political influence and representation. In this respect, KENASVIT has done a lot to improve both the relation to the authorities and the general conditions of street vendors and informal traders. Zambia: We will rid Lusaka of street vendors – Muteteka Lusaka Times (29 Jan 2010) Government says it is workng hard to ensurei that all street vendors are accommodated in designated market places. Thousands of Street Vendors to be Developed with Special Location Berita Jakarta (29 Jan 2010)Jakarta Capital City Government is to relocate around 13 thousand street vendors to special locations designated to helping the vendors develop their businesses. However, only eligible street vendors can occupy the area. Leading academics and architects put their weight behind court action to prevent demolition of the Early Morning Market in Durban, South Africa. "Negotiations continue - Warwick traders legal action gets boost", Natal Mercury, by Tania Broughton, 14th September, 2009. Struggle of SEWA (Madhya Pradesh) at Indore (June, 2009) Anger about R400m mall plan. Independent online (May 21, 2009) Warwick Junction: Shopping Mall vs. Market - Youtube documentaries PAKISTAN8.2 million HBWs do not Qualify for Formal Social Protection The nation (1 Jan 2011) In Pakistan, 8.2 million women are working as home-based workers (HBWs). During a “One Day Consultation on the Social Security Issues in Pakistan and linking up with Home-based Workers” organised by HomeNet Pakistan and Labour Education Foundation it was stressed that HBWs are not recognised as ‘workers’ so do not qualify for formal social protection mechanism. SRI LANKA Proposals for home-based worker policy handed over to Labour Minister Colombo Today (25 May 2010) HomeNet Sri Lanka today (May 25) handed over its proposals towards the formulation of a national policy on home-based workers, to Minister of Labour Relations and Productivity Improvement Gamini Lokuge at his ministry. Director of HomeNet Sri Lanka Dilanthe Withanage made the handover on behalf of his institution. INDIA SEWA Eyes Expansion Plans, to Increase Global Footprint Business Standard (27 Mar 2010) Gujarat-based Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) has chalked out major expansion plans with the launch of its new premium handicraft brand ‘Hansiba’. SEWA plans to open eight ‘Hansiba’ outlets across the country by the next financial year from the present three in New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. PAKISTAN: Home-Based Workers Struggle to Climb Out of Poverty IPS (25 Jan 2010) Rags to riches: Erin O'Connor's fairtrade fashion (24 Jan 2010) The Guardian INDIA. Forced Evictions due to Commonwealth Games Violate Human Rights, Contribute to a Permanent Negative Social Legacy. South Asia Citizens Web, New Delhi (13 Oct 2010). Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) has been involved in a study on forced evictions carried out due to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. HLRN estimates that at least 250,000 people in Delhi have lost their homes as a direct result of the Games since 2004. INDIA Street vendors' association protests unfair treatment Sify (5 Oct 2010) Ranjit Abhigyan of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) said nearly one lakh (100,000) street vendors have been evicted from Delhi and neighbouring parts because of the Commonwealth Games. INDIA Q&A: ‘Finding Delhi’ Wall Street Journal (1 Oct 2010) Tripti Lahiri India Real Time spoke to Bharati Chaturvedi, environmentalist, writer, and director of environmental justice nonprofit Chintan. Chintan works with waste pickers and other informal workers. Ms. Chaturvedi has edited a new anthology with contributions from, among others, urban planners, activists, two washermen and a maid about the sort of city Delhi could or should be. INDIA Delhi’s street vendors now get quit orders CalcuttaTube (28 Sep 2010) As Delhi dresses up for the Commonwealth Games and covers up its warts, the ubiquitous street vendor selling vegetables, fruits, cigarettes, utilities or quick eats on carts or from roadside stalls say they have been asked peremptorily to shut shop as they are seen as potential security threats. What will I do? One whole month is a lot of time, I have got a family to feed, money to pay, where will I go?’ asked Kamlesh Nath, an affected vendor who sells vegetables and earns Rs.300 a day. INDIA The Games versus the people The Economic Times (18 Sep 2010) What the Delhi government proposes to do is to ban all unlicensed street vendors during the Games. Now, 90-95 % of all street vendors are unlicensed and they cater to the requirements of a huge population, particularly for day-time meals. Banishing them means taking away their own and their customers’ food. Another way in which the less well-off are being kept away is by taking 1,500 Blueline buses — the distinctly downmarket coaches that Delhi’s plebeian masses rely on for mobility — off the road. SOUTH AFRICA Call to Use World Cup Profits to Aid Street Vendors (22 Jul 2010) Weekend Post PART of the 2010 Fifa World Cup profits should be channelled into programmes to support street vendors in Nelson Mandela Bay and other host cities who lost their income during the tournament. This was the call by trade unions, street vendor organisations, NGOs and Mandela Bay Mayor Zanoxolo Wayile at a workshop in Port Elizabeth which started on Monday. “At the very least, 0.7% of the profits from the World Cup should be channelled into development programmes for street vendors in the nine host cities to be drawn up together with their representatives,” said Streetnet International co-ordinator Pat Horn. INDIA The 2010 Commonwealth Games: Delhi's Worrying Transformation (19 July 2010) Monthly Review Delhi residents expect that their upturned streets, recurrent blackouts and impassable traffic jams will soon give way to something spectacular. On the horizon, or so they are told, is the transformation of India's congested national capital into a 'world class city' -- a gleaming global metropolis worthy not only of hosting this prestigious sporting event, but of India's emerging status as the next Asian superpower. The purveyors of this sweet but tenuous dream, which is still buried beneath layers of scaffolding and rubble, would rather not be reminded that 77 percent of the India's population live on less than INR 20 (USD 50 cents) a day. INDIA SC funds diverted for Games: RTI activists Hindustan Times online (15 July 2010) “Civil society representatives on Thursday alleged that the funds meant for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes were being diverted to Commonwealth Games projects. According to Right to Information (RTI) activist and associate director, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) Shivani Chaudhary, as much as Rs 744.35 crore from Delhi’s special component plan (SCP) - which aims to improving the standard of living of the poor sections of the community through various government schemes and programmes - was diverted to the Games projects…” INDIA Protest over 2010 Commonwealth Games in Varanasi Sify Sports (12 July 2010) “The members of 'Paharuaa Jann Sangathan', a voluntary organisation, staged a highly charged protest against the Queen's Baton and the hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi city on Monday…” INDIA Shining India' makes its poor pay price of hosting Commonwealth Games The Guardian (UK) online (11 July 2010) “…Organisers of the games are acutely aware that the din and filth of the Indian capital could shock visitors. So, along with the construction of new sporting facilities, roads, flyovers, metro lines and an airport, dozens of long-standing slum communities built on public land, vacant lots, by railways or INDIA Hundreds of thousands displaced in New Delhi to make way for Commonwealth Games The Washington Post online (10 July 2010) Reports on the massive infrastructural developments being undertaken in preparation for the Delhi Games and claims “the glitz and gleam of the construction are leaving a long trail of forced evictions and displacements, joblessness, labor law violations, environmental damage and huge cost overruns”. INDIA For Village security, school razed Times of India (9 July 2010) “In an attempt to secure the Commonwealth Games Village, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Wednesday razed a school on the Yamuna Khadar, right behind the Akshardham Temple. The school catered to about 180 children of farmers and labourers working in and around the river bed… While officials maintained the building was totally illegal and no structures were permitted on the river bed, those associated with the school pointed out that compared to the number of unauthorized structures that had come up on the river bed, many of them with the sanction of the government, this was only providing education to poor children who otherwise would never be able to afford going to school…” INDIA INA market shop owners protest razing Hindustan Times online (29 June 2010) “Displaced Kashmiri pandits, who owned the shops in INA Market that were demolished on Saturday, held a protest march in front of the Market. The MCD had demolished 36 shops as part of the beautification process for the upcoming Commonwealth Games…” **INDIA Shops at INA market demolished Press Trust of India (27 June 2010) “Shops belonging to displaced Kashmiris at a popular south Delhi market have been demolished by authorities as part of a beautification drive for the Commonwealth Games. The 36 shops, located at the INA market here were, demolished yesterday and the shopkeepers alleged that they were not served prior notices before the exercise was carried out…” ** SOUTH AFRICA Thousands protest against FIFA, World Cup excess Mail and Guardian (16 June 2010) Thousands of South Africans held a march in Durban today to protest against the government's massive spending on the World Cup. They were joined by hundreds of stewards caught up in the ongoing dispute over low wages, which saw riot police break up a demonstration with tear gas and percussive grenades on Sunday, and which has now spread to five of the ten South African World Cup stadiums. SOUTH AFRICA Thousands protest against World Cup spending Mail and Guardian (16 June 2010) Thousands of South Africans staged a march on Wednesday to protest against lavish spending on the tournament and the sacking of security staff, inflicting a new embarrassment on organisers. As the country marked the 34th anniversary of the Soweto uprising against apartheid rule, about 3 000 people marched in Durban to denounce Fifa and the government for their spending priorities when millions live in poverty. SOUTH AFRICA Winners and Losers The Age (16 Jun 2010) They have come to watch the opening rounds of the 2010 World Cup in a park surrounded by a two-metre, razor-tipped steel picket fence. At one end sits a vast plasma screen perched on a stand several metres high. The images projected on the screen are fuzzy and washed out by the setting sun, but nobody seems too worried. These so-called TV parks were set up across South Africa by a local telecom to bring television to poor communities. Rachael Zulu, a 43 year-old mother of two, is sitting patiently on the grass waiting for the match between South Africa and Mexico to kick off. She says there is no way she could afford to buy a ticket to see the national side ''Bafana, Bafana'' play at any of the new stadiums. ''I don't know of anybody living here who is going to the World Cup; we are all poor,'' she says. ''I am a piece worker, everything I make goes to keeping my girl at school.'' INDIA India shuns poor in Commonwealth Games makeover AlertNet (15 June 2010) “As millions across the globe focus their attention on the World Cup in South Africa, the Indian capital New Delhi is busy preparing to host another international sporting event - the 2010 Commonwealth Games… But social activists say government efforts to portray the city as a global sporting hub come at the expense of thousands of poor urban Indians who have been evicted, displaced or exploited as a result of the Games…” SOUTH AFRICA Crumbs Only for Poor as Gold Rush Fails to Take Off Reuters (15 June 2010) The gold rush supposed to come with the World Cup has passed by Angela Ncube, an impoverished street vendor who hoped to earn a few rand for herself from the richest sporting event to hit the continent. Tough regulations on commercial activity and overly optimistic expectations of windfalls have dashed the hopes of millions of the country's poor such a Ncube, private home owners and struggling merchants. "The only people who benefit are FIFA and the rich. We, the poor, we don't benefit anything," Ncube said after she was forced to move away from one of the main football stadiums in Johannesburg where she tried to sell sweets and snacks to the tens of thousands packing the venue. SOUTH AFRICA Struggling to Locate African Experience ESPN (14 Jun 2010) "KeNako - Celebrate Africa's Humanity" - a FIFA motto that litters the stadia of South Africa's World Cup. A worthy concept, yet not one that was reflected on my first foray into the world of the paying fan. In partnering with various multi-nationals to provide food, drink and no doubt a hefty wedge of endorsement cash, FIFA can be held responsible for the fact that the stadiums do not reflect African culture in any fashion other than the infamous pariah that is the vuvuzela. Add in the fact the local economy's hopes of making a bonanza from the footballing festival have been denied by the exclusion zones placed against all but endorsed products and you have a tournament that could well be being played anywhere on this earth. SOUTH AFRICA Out of Bounds? Cape Town's Cleanup for the World Cup CIR Web Exclusive Video (8 June 2010) As soccer stars and fans converge in South Africa for the World Cup, Christopher Werth travels into the Cape Town slums to investigate reports that people are being displaced to make way for. The report brings viewers into the reality of informal housing, forced relocations and the temporary camps that the government has provided. SOUTH AFRICA South African Street Vendors Protest as Official Sponsors Move In EuroNews (June 8, 2010) It is hoped that the World Cup will bring economic benefits to host nation South Africa, but local street vendors in Johannesburg won’t be seeing the profits. They’ve been cleared off the pavements to make way for official FIFA partners – Pinky Pinkoli, for example, has had to give up the central spot she’s held for 26 years. SOUTH AFRICA Kicked Out for the Cup? Newsweek (4 June 2010) Local headlines accuse South African police of rounding up the homeless and dumping them miles away, while residents from across Cape Town claim they’ve been relocated from their squatter settlements and dilapidated buildings to a temporary camp on the outskirts of town before the football fans arrive. In addition, FIFA’s demands for a commercial exclusion zone around the venues for its official sponsors such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have come as a blow to thousands of South Africa’s street traders, who say they’re being pushed out for the month-long event. SOUTH AFRICA World Cup Pushes Out South Africa's Poor American Public Media (June 3, 2010) South Africa has spent more than $2 billion on infrastructure to get ready for the World Cup. But critics say a lot of the money is pushing aside the poor. Nkosinathi Jikeka with StreetNet International, a global network of informal traders, says "everybody's told that this is our World Cup and that all of us are going to benefit. But an ordinary person on the street, the layman, the poor South African, he's not going to benefit." Jikeka says that unless they get access to the huge market of World Cup tourists, only big business will come away the winners. SOUTH AFRICA South African media question benefits of the World Cup playthegame.org (1 June 2010) As the 2010 World Cup in South Africa approaches, the question of what South Africa actually gains from hosting this mega-event is raised more frequently. The South African organisers proclaim that the World Cup will benefit South Africa and the African continent for years to come, but critical voices are joining in, asking who actually benefits from the 2010 World Cup. SOUTH AFRICA Cup Might Trigger Clashes Times Live (May 31, 2010) With the World Cup soon to take place in South Africa, SEWA's Ela Bhatt is one among several eminent global leaders of an Elder Group expressing concerns -- one being that street traders won't be allowed to operate inside World Cup stadiums. SOUTH AFRICA African Football Shorts: The food vendor BBC (28 May 2010) Miriam Balang is a food vendor who lives in an area called 17 houses, around 100 metres from Johannesburg's Ellis Park Stadium. She is frustrated with the local council as they will not allow her to sell food to spectators during the World Cup. SOUTH AFRICA 'South Africans left with white elephants' Independent Online (23 May 2010) The World Cup has brought Port Elizabeth a stunning new landmark in its oceanside stadium, but questions remain about who will fill the stands once the global football fans leave. "In the South African case, all the stadiams were either renovated or constructed by the government. That means that the commercial consideration was never primary," said economist Stan du Plessis of Stellenbosch University. "Some of these stadiums are simply not going to be in a position to cover their running costs. In that sense, they will be loss making." SOUTH AFRICA Hawkers want in on World Cup share Sowetan (18 May 2010) Street vendors have urged the government to work with their local organisations during the World Cup to ensure that they can continue trading on match days. The vendors represent some of the poorest and most marginalised of the urban poor, according to Pat Horn, coordinator of StreetNet International. “We are also demanding that the government set up street vendors’ bargaining forums to develop policies to support vendors and provide them with social protections.” SOUTH AFRICA The World Cup Runneth over, but Not for All South Africans Irish Times (15 May 2010) The street traders from the Grand Parade market in Cape Town were among the millions of South Africans who bought into the idea that hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup in their country would benefit all its citizens. The fact that hawkers and traders across the country looked set to be sidelined during the tournament prompted StreetNet International, a Durban-based federation of street trader organisations, to initiate the World Class Cities for All Campaign (WCCA) campaign in 2007 to fight for their rights. It was only after months of protests and court actions that city officials in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Mbombela offered a select few traders limited access to World Cup sites. But protests are still ongoing in these cities, as traders say the new sites are not within reach of World Cup visitors. The seven remaining host cities have yet to give their urban poor any opportunity to cash in. INDIA In the Race to the Commonwealth Games, Delhi's Wastepickers are Left Behind The Wip online (10 May 2010) “…In an attempt to make the city greener and cleaner for the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi in October, the government has been experimenting with several new ventures, including a plan to privatize the city's waste collection systems. Until now this work has been handled by the informal sector which is not recognized by the government. It includes people who pick trash in the landfills, the door-to-door collectors, and two levels of middlemen, who sell plastic, paper, and metal to factories to be recycled. Privatization has already begun in seven out of the twelve administrative zones…” SOUTH AFRICA South Africa World Cup 'just for the rich' BBC News (10 May 2010) Mr Mzimela is upset at what he calls "hostile raids" by Durban's municipal police, against traders found operating near the stadium or any of the sites earmarked for the World Cup. Regulations imposed by football's world governing body Fifa on host countries stipulate that no-one but its commercial partners be allowed trade or promote their products in the immediate vicinity of all World Cup sites. BRAZIL Brazilian Crackdown: It’s Giuliani-Time as Rio de Janeiro Goes for the Gold The Indypendent (2 Apr 2010) Ever since Rio de Janeiro learned it would host the 2016 Olympics, police have begun shutting down colorfully painted street vendor stands that line the city’s famous beaches. Vendors are told that in order to regain their livelihoods they must apply for and secure a license. If they’re allowed to return, they’ll have to operate out of a generic white tent. INDIA In the Name of the Games Dawn.com (30 March 2010) What cannot be removed must be covered – such is the policy of the Indian government towards the country's slums as Delhi gets ready to host the Commonwealth Games in October 2010. Government officials had initially said the games could benefit slum-dwellers as they would be provided with better homes ahead of the event. But on the ground, the reality seems to be different. INDIA A Commonwealth shame? BBC Soutik Biswas’s India (22 Mar 2010) Biswas recently finished reading a 116-page report by a committee appointed by the Delhi high court on the "condition of workers" engaged in construction work on Commonwealth Games sites in the Indian capital. The October Games, on which the government is spending more than $2bn, is the biggest international sporting event India has ever hosted. The report is shocking. It confirms Delhi's worst kept secret - how the shiny new stadia and other infrastructure hide the exploitative and unsafe conditions that 150,000 workers have to work under. Informal workers hit by global recession (29 Jan 2010) Dawn.com Amna Shakoor dreams of having a day off simply to have “a long, uninterrupted sleep.” But for the time being there is little chance of that for this 45-year-old mother of 12. Amna lives in a two-room rented home in Orangi, Karachi, with her children and husband. She supplements her husband’s erratic income by rolling biris all day, and sometimes well into the night. Still, the global recession is making it impossible for the Shakoor family to meet their needs. Financial crisis threatens to set back education worldwide, UN report warns (19 Jan 2010) UN News Centre. The global financial crisis threatens to deprive millions of childr in the world’s poorest countries of an education, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, with a knock-on effect on future economic growth, poverty reduction and progress in health and other areas, according to a United Nations report released today. In the Shadows, Day Laborers Left Homeless as Work Vanishes Jan. 1, 2010. With their isolation and day-to-day existence, the laborers are perhaps the most invisible and hardest-to-reach victims of the recession, advocates and New York city officials say. By Fernanda Santos, New York Times. Anbody Seen Pati? Dec. 26, 2009. The recession in the U.S. is felt at a grass-roots level in Honduras. By Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times. No end in sight to economic crisis for hard-hit developing world – UN report, UN Secretary General releases study on the impact of the global crisis on the world’s vulnerable and poor. A Scrap of Decency, New York Times (Aug 4, 2009)
Gender Disparities in African Labor Markets Caused by Jobs Scarcity, Not Discrimination – World Bank Study (1 Nov 2010) The World Bank News and Broadcast. Gender inequalities remain a concern in African labor markets despite variations from one country to another, a new book published by the World Bank shows. Datasets referenced in the study indicate that in a number of African countries, women are almost twice as likely as men to be in the informal sector and about two times less likely to have a public or private formal job. INDIA Attempting sustainable economic development DNA (26 Sep 2010) USA Domestic Workers Bill of Rights law finally grants protection for over 200,000 people (2 Sep 2010) New York Daily News The new Bill of Rights law will, for the first time, give the same protection other workers have to thousands of nannies, housekeepers, elder companions, cleaners, baby-sitters and cooks in private households in the state of New York. These are people who, although they spend much of their lives taking care of others, historically have been among the most exploited of society's laborers. GUATEMALA Women Eke Out a Living in Informal Economy IPS (16 Feb 2010) According to the third regional report on the labour market in Central America and the Dominican Republic produced by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Central American Integration System (SICA), 64 percent of women in the labour force in the region work in the informal sector, compared to 50 percent of men in the workforce. Progress Towards Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment "Uneven," Says Top UN Official (3 Mar 2010) Progress across the globe for gender equality and women's empowerment remains "uneven," particularly in economic and social policies, a top UN official stated as the United Nations opened up a two-week-long 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Also highlighted were several areas of the uneven progress, namely in the workforce where women are disproportionately represented in informal work and poorly paid. "The persistent unequal sharing of unpaid work between women and men, including caregiving, adversely affects women's choices and opportunities in the labor market." Ela Ramesh Bhatt of India to Receive 27th Niwano Peace Prize CNW Group (24 Feb 2010) The Niwano Peace Foundation will award the 27th Niwano Peace Prize to Ms. Ela Ramesh Bhatt of India in recognition of her contribution for more than 30 years to improving the lives of her country's poorest and most oppressed women workers. Ms. Bhatt, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi's teachings, is widely recognized as one of the world's most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development. Known as a "gentle revolutionary," she founded in 1972 the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a trade union now with more than 1.2 million members. Better Living Through Artistry Design Observer Group (18 Feb 2010) SEWA’s Trade Facilitation Centre, a cooperative textile manufacturing company in Ahmedebad, India, is no sweatshop, but part of a vast, productive network of self-employed women. CENTRAL AMERICA: Women Eke Out a Living in Informal Economy IPS (16 Feb 2010) According to the third regional report on the labour market in Central America and the Dominican Republic produced by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Central American Integration System (SICA), 64 percent of women in the labour force in the region work in the informal sector, compared to 50 percent of men in the workforce. Hillary Clinton Meets With SEWA Members in Mumbai, India July 18, 2009 During her 3-day trip to India, Hillary Clinton meets with SEWA members at the Hansiba SEWA Trade Facilitation Center in Mumbai. Secretary Clinton expresses the Obama administration’s support for organizations like SEWA. Read Remarks by Hillary Clinton at SEWA Store for SEWA Hansiba Tour
photo credit: SEWA. Visit SEWA website to view more photos. Read news stories: July 19, 2009 - Clinton kicks off 3-day visit to India: Meets with rich, poor on education and healthcare. By Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. July 18, 2009 - Hillary meets SEWA volunteers. By the Press Trust of India, Hindustan Times. Inclusive Cities partner Mahila SEWA Trust awarded 2009 MacArthur Award for Creative & Effective Institutions. Informal sector suffering. Phnom Penh Post (May 29, 2009) Capta el sector informal 2,423 personas cada día. Exselsior online (May 24, 2009) Where are the world's poor finding hope? Under the table. The Globe and Mail (May 24, 2009) Economia informal cresce 27% em 2008 com alta de imposto. Abril.com (May 14, 2009) Informal economy a force in its own right. Times Online ( Apr 24, 2009) An Empire for Poor Working Women, Guided by a Gandhian Approach. New York Times (Mar 6 2009) The Rise of the Underground. Wall Street Journal (Mar 14, 2009)
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