Vendors’ Right to Market Space

Abstract

Vendors in Lall Market, Gangtok, come from different socioeconomic backgrounds and places, from different parts of India and Nepal. A large section of them constitutes the urban poor who make a living by doing petty trade while being a part of the urban informal economy. They have found vending as a way of earning their livelihood for themselves and their family. The right to livelihood is guaranteed as a Fundamental Right in the Indian Constitution; Article 21 guarantees the Right to Life and Personal Liberty. For the vendors, however, earning livelihood requires space from where they vend their goods, which is a contested space in the market place and hard to secure. The one who owns it and operates on it has to navigate their way through various social and administrative control and in that effort, the political participation of vendors plays a very important part in holding on to the place in the market. The paper aims to highlight the impact of the political participation of vendors in manoeuvring their way into the market space in availing the limited assets available.