RailEnquiry

Seeking an end to “all forms of harassment” meted out to vendors who want to carry out their profession from Railway premises or properties, representatives of railway vendors on Saturday urged the Union Railway Ministry and the Railway Board to provide them vending rights as per the National Policy for Vendors.Speaking at a meet organised by National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) at Indian Social Institute here, representatives of railway vendors from various States spoke about the problems being faced by both unorganised and organised vendors.They demanded that the vendors be liberated from the control of security personnel, commercial officials and health inspectors and be treated as legalised railway vendors. They said these vendors should have a status at par with the licensed porters who have entitlements of identity card, health and rail travel facilities.A large number of railway vendors, who spoke at the meet, narrated their experiences. Many charged that they had to pay “protection money” to security personnel in order to carry out their trade. “It is very funny that at one level the railway is considered a national property, but on the other, this property is not meant for the public,'' quipped one of the vendors.Another vendor from Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh noted that while the National Policy for Vendors provides for entitlement of vendors to earn their livelihood on public places, the rules, notifications and orders of railway authorities debar vendors to use railway land and spaces.He suggested setting up of division and zone level vending committees comprising railway vendor representatives, commercial, traffic and health department officials and senior Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel to take all decisions related to vending and catering at platforms and railway premises.Earlier speaking at the meet, NASVI national coordinator Arbind Singh said the meet has been organised to elucidate how thousands of railway vendors are living a miserable life in different cities and towns as the livelihood opportunities have got lost. “A small section of them that manages to vend on platforms are forced to live at the mercy of RPF, commercial department and railway health inspectors. Illegal collection of money or otherwise continuous harassment of vendors has become a routine phenomenon at all railway stations,'' he charged.At the meet, a presentation on “Exclusion of Railway Vendors: Sign of Poor Railway Governance” was also made by NASVI programme manager Ranjit Abhigyan. The presentation dealt with issues of privatisation driven changing priorities of Indian Railways and the need for bringing the railway vendors together to safeguard their rights.