How soaring temperature exposes street vendors to climate risks

(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Ritwika Patgiri looks at the challenges faced by street vendors and explores the way forward.)
Today's urban landscape is perhaps unimaginable without street vendors — visible at traffic lights, pavements, and bustling marketplaces, selling goods at affordable rates. Street vending in India employs over six million individuals, which includes around 4% of urban non-farm employment.
Globally too, street vendors constitute between 2% to 24% of total informal urban employment in African, Asian and Latin American cities. Despite this, street vendors grapple with a multitude of challenges, including those related to climate change.
Therefore, as temperature soars in Delhi – it recorded its highest maximum temperature of the season at 41.3 degrees on April 21 – concerns grow about the vulnerability of gig workers and street vendors.
The Urban heat island effect – which refers to cities with higher ambient temperatures than rural surroundings – further makes the summer heat more intense and exposes outdoor workers to serious health risks such as heatstroke, dehydration, and cardiovascular stress.
These issues underline the urgency of protecting the livelihoods of street vendors against climate change. But first, let's understand who are street vendors and what are the major challenges faced by them. What policy measures could be taken to better safeguard them against climate-related risks?
Who are street vendors?
The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) defines street vendors as a person who offers goods or services for sale to the public without having a permanently built structure but with a temporary static structure or mobile stall (or head-load).
This definition suggests that street vendors could be stationary and occupy space on the pavements or other public or private areas. They could also be mobile vendors, who move from place to place carrying their wares on pushcarts, cycles, baskets, or selling them in moving buses.
It is important to note that street vendors generate demand for both formal and informal suppliers, create jobs for porters, guards, and transport operators, and generate revenue for local governments. Yet, street vendors continue to face everyday struggles shaped by deep social inequalities.
Their everyday struggles
Street vending across the Global South is highly gendered and is shaped by caste-class dynamics too. For instance, women constitute the majority of street food vendors, with 70-80% of street food stalls operated by them.
Moreover, a 2010 census of street children in Delhi revealed that there are around 51,000 street children in the city, with nearly 70% of them fending for themselves in the street; of these, 36% were Dalits and 17% were Adivasis.
These intersectional identities reinforce everyday struggles faced by vulnerable groups. Studies have found that insecure workplace conditions impact many vendors, especially those who work in the streets rather than in markets.
Police harassment, arbitrary confiscations of merchandise, demands for bribes, physical abuse, evictions, and relocation are significant challenges that street vendors across the developing world have to struggle with. Forced evictions linked to urban development projects and attempts at formalising public spaces are other serious issues.
Formalisation of street vending
The construction of the Dighalipukhuri-Noonmati flyover in the heart of Guwahati in October 2024 displaced over 100 street food vendors from the city's newly marked Khao Gali (food street). Similarly, in July 2024, the Mumbai High Court declared that the menace of unauthorised hawkers reached 'alarming proportions'.
In another example, the highway department in Chennai demolished roadside carts in June last year to alleviate traffic congestion. These cases reveal how precarity and informality remain central to street vending in the developing world. Urban infrastructure projects often result in the eviction of marketplace vendors, which is often supported by the popular perception that pavement hawkers are 'illegal' or 'creating menace'.
The promise of formalisation works as a double-edged sword. Local governments often control access to vending spaces, and non-conformation can result in fines, displacement, or demolition of their stalls.
Formalisation also involves the application of licenses and the payment of market fees, without much consideration for vendors' access to transportation, toilets, sanitation, drinking water, or safety in public spaces. Hence, formalisation measures do not necessarily work in favour of street vendors.
Street Vendors Act
Moreover, it has been more than a decade since the enactment of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The Act recognises and protects street vendors' right to earn a livelihood from footpaths without harassment. It was further supported by the court as it rejected labels like 'obstruction' and 'encroachers' for street vendors and affirmed their economic role and the right to livelihood.
It proposed a registration system and a framework for local management and self-governance to protect vendors' rights. The Act mandates the identification of all street vendors through surveys every five years and requires that all identified vendors be accommodated within the designated vending zones.
Although the Act initially offered hope for street vendors, its poor implementation made it a subject of criticism, particularly in metropolitan cities. Notably, many street vendors are unaware of the Act and the rights it guarantees.
Data has also shown that the mandated surveys have been rarely conducted and most vendors continue to operate without a fixed place and access to basic amenities like drinking water, shelter, and sanitation. This lack of basic infrastructure and formal protections increases the vulnerabilities of street vendors to the impact of climate change.
Climate change and street vending
As temperatures reached 50 degrees in the national capital of Delhi last year, concerns about how extreme heat impacts different groups of people became important. Gig and platform workers like Zomato delivery workers battling extreme weather conditions to do their jobs is a stark example. Without a designated workspace, gig workers are vulnerable to climate change.
Street vendors also face similar concerns. It won't be wrong to say that the unparalleled heat wave in many parts of the country along with recurring severe heat events have largely been invisible in policy discussions.
India recorded over 40,000 cases of heatstroke during the summer of 2024, with over 100 reported deaths. About 40% of the country experienced double the usual number of heatwaves. Such extreme conditions have tremendous health and well-being implications, particularly for those whose work is entirely outdoors.
The way forward
While the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 provides a framework to protect vendors, including against climate-related challenges, concerns regarding its actual implementation remain to be addressed. A holistic and inclusive approach may help address the multifaceted challenges faced by street vendors.
First, the effective implementation of the Act must be prioritised, with timely surveys, the creation of inclusive vending zones, and widespread awareness campaigns about vendors' rights. In addition, urban planning needs to move away from a top-down, exclusionary model to one that recognises the economic and social contributions of street vendors, integrating them into the formal urban economy without compromising their flexibility or affordability.
Local governments could ensure the availability of basic infrastructure — including access to clean water, sanitation, shaded vending zones, and waste management systems — while developing clear, participatory guidelines for vending rights and dispute resolution. Importantly, any effort towards formalisation needs to be sensitive to caste, class, gender, and climate vulnerabilities in order to ensure protection from extreme weather through climate-resilient infrastructure.
Lastly, civil society, labor unions, and grassroots organisations may play an active role in empowering vendors to collectively claim their right to the city.
Post Read Questions
Who are street vendors, and what are the major challenges they face in their daily lives?
Why is it important to rethink urban planning approaches toward street vendors in the context of rapid infrastructure development?
What rights and protections does the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 offer to street vendors?
How can urban planning become more inclusive of street vendors and their contributions to the urban economy?
Why is it important for formalisation efforts to be sensitive to caste, class, gender, and climate vulnerabilities?
(Ritwika Patgiri is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Economics, South Asian University.)

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