top of page
Search

Nagpur’s Eviction Drives Leave Thousands of Hawkers Without Work

Nagpur’s Eviction Drives Leave Thousands of Hawkers Without Work
Nagpur’s Eviction Drives Leave Thousands of Hawkers Without Work

In May 2025, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) carried out a major anti-encroachment drive on Sitabuldi Main Road. The stretch between Variety Square and Loha Pul, a well-known shopping location for budget buyers, was cleared of all vendors.


The NMC enforced a strict “no-hawking” policy and ordered that no vendor should return to the location.


More than 1,000 vendors had been operating in this area for decades, the majority without formal licenses. Of these, only 103 were registered hawkers. They were asked to move to an alternate location at Maharajbagh DP Road.

However, the site lacked infrastructure, visibility, customer access, and footfall. Vendors described it as unworkable and refused to move there.


As a result, the entire hawking community in Sitabuldi lost access to a space that had sustained their families for years.


The road was cleared, but no structured alternative was provided. Licensed hawkers have rejected the site allocation, stating that relocating to Maharajbagh DP Road would cause them to complete economic collapse. Most of them have stayed away from the new location entirely.


The Town Vending Committee (TVC), meant to facilitate negotiations and planning, has seen vendor representatives boycott its meetings.



Hawkers have accused the NMC of taking unilateral decisions without consultation. They also claim that the TVC has been overtaken by political and commercial interests, leaving little space for genuine representation.

Hawkers have also alleged that previous eviction drives in the same area had not worked in the long term. Vendors had returned to the same stretch multiple times, some allegedly by paying bribes to enforcement officers.


These recurring cycles have revealed the short-term nature of the NMC’s approach, which focuses on removals without addressing underlying causes or alternatives.


The stretch, once active with commerce, now stands empty of vendors. Many hawkers have no income source left and no other location where they can lawfully operate. No new plan has been implemented to address the disruption caused by the drive.


Repeated Crackdowns in Mahal and Other Areas


Sitabuldi is not the only area affected. Similar eviction operations have taken place in Mahal and other commercial parts of Vidarbha's Nagpur between 2022 and 2025. In these cases, the pattern has remained the same that vendors are removed with no sustainable plan for relocation.


In Mahal, eviction drives were conducted multiple times between 2023 and 2025. No effective alternative was provided.

The same has occurred across smaller zones in the city. These ad-hoc crackdowns failed to regulate vending or provide structure. Vendors have returned to cleared spaces, and congestion has continued.


The absence of organised vending zones is a key concern. Even where roads were widened or restructured, no dedicated space for hawkers was created. Conflicts between shopkeepers, vendors, enforcement teams, and customers have remained unresolved.



In the absence of regulation, these areas continue to experience unplanned growth and overlapping usage of public space.


There has been no consistent mapping of where vending can take place, no infrastructure built to support vendors, and no attempt to integrate informal traders into the city’s planning mechanisms.


Town Vending Committee and Policy Deadlock

Town Vending Committee and Policy Deadlock
Town Vending Committee and Policy Deadlock

In 2016, the NMC had initiated a hawker registration drive. At the time, 1,225 vendors were successfully registered. However, the process was later discontinued. Since then, no updated data has been recorded, and no new batches of vendors have been registered.


The Town Vending Committee, mandated to manage licensing, space allocation, and vendor rights, has not achieved any measurable success.


This has caused a deadlock. Without representation, vendors have no platform to voice concerns. Without functioning dialogue, the administration has no structured input from vendors to frame a viable policy. There has been no progress in licensing new vendors or identifying legal vending zones.


As of 2025, over 50,000 hawkers operate across Nagpur. Most of them have no legal recognition or protection.


There is no secure or designated space for them to work. Government directives at both central and state levels require that hawkers be registered and vending zones be marked. But in Nagpur, this remains unfulfilled. This policy vacuum has left the informal sector exposed to arbitrary enforcement and constant displacement.


The NMC has continued to carry out evictions. But in the absence of structure, vendors return to the same locations or shift to other crowded spots. The city’s informal economy remains in disarray, and the core problem of planning remains unaddressed.


Lack of Functional Alternatives and the Resulting Breakdown


The only alternative offered to Sitabuldi hawkers has been the Maharajbagh DP Road site. Vendors rejected this location, citing its remote placement, poor foot traffic, and complete lack of commercial infrastructure. They described it as non-viable and refused to move.


No other zones have been created. The city has no structured list of vending spaces and no map identifying legal and illegal hawking spots. Without these, enforcement is arbitrary and temporary.


The Town Vending Committee, which was supposed to be a planning forum, is non-functional. With no participation from vendors and no steps from the administration to rebuild dialogue, the gap between the two sides has widened.


Eviction has been used as the primary tool, but without any back-end planning, the problem remains unresolved. Vendors are evicted, and in time, they return. The enforcement cycle repeats.

The table below summarises key eviction drives and their results:

Location

Year

Action Taken

Alternative Provided

Outcome / Issues

Sitabuldi Main Road

2025

Eviction, no-hawking enforced

Maharajbagh DP Road

Vendors refused to move; loss of income; policy breakdown

Mahal

2023–2025

Periodic eviction drives

None effective

Vendors returned; congestion remains

Other zones in Nagpur

2022–2025

Ad-hoc crackdowns

No zones created

Repeated encroachments; unresolved conflicts

This cycle has had a direct effect on the livelihoods of thousands of hawkers and their families. Their income has vanished, and there is no safety net in place.


With no formal recognition and no structured integration into the city’s planning, vendors remain in a fragile position.


Vending in public spaces forms a significant part of Nagpur’s informal economy. Over the past three years, repeated eviction drives have removed vendors without offering them workable alternatives.

These actions have disrupted employment for tens of thousands. Despite the presence of a Town Vending Committee and government instructions to regulate and register hawkers, Nagpur’s civic administration has failed to implement a viable system.



Without functional vending zones, working infrastructure, or proper dialogue, the vendors of Nagpur remain vulnerable to displacement with no clear path forward.


References




Comments

Rated 0 out of 5 stars.
No ratings yet
Add a rating
bottom of page