"The BMC, police, courts, don’t belong to us; we only have each other"

“Comrade! Zindabad! How are you?” Naveen Bhai’s voice booms. Naveen Yadav, 42, is a street vendor, activist, and member of Janwaadi Hawker’s Sabha (JHS) and CITU. His broad smile belies sharp political insight.

He runs a modest stall with his brother, serving food to a working-class clientele amid Versova’s glitzy towers. Arriving in Mumbai from Muzaffarpur at 17, he worked as a domestic worker, in a ration shop, as a driver, before starting a paan stall in 1997. It has witnessed Yaari Road’s transformation—from forest to gentrified neighbourhood, from 2014’s Yaari Road Bachao to the demolitions that followed. The stall still stands tall. “It doesn’t make much. I let my brother keep what it earns.” His driving gig at a call centre supports both families. Why fight for a flailing stall? He smiles, “It’s my first child. I have invested so much into it.”

His fight is also political. As we sip tea, he reflects on organising vendors in a city hostile to informal economies. The Street Vendors Act, 2014, meant to safeguard them, remains largely unimplemented. A decade later, Town Vending Committees are unelected, licenses poorly distributed, and corruption rampant. Even vendors holding licenses face demolitions for minor infractions. “The government gives land to Ambanis, Adanis, Tatas. For hawkers who feed people, they offer a 3-foot plot. They don’t want us to earn.” He imagines a future where land is for livelihood, not profit. 

When I ask about gated communities campaigning against hawkers, he remains unwavering. “Even among white-collar workers, there are hierarchies. They share struggles with the working-class, but are being fooled.” As the 2024 PIL on street vendors continues in the Bombay High Court, Naveen recalls how JHS once built powerful movements, only to fracture under divisions—caste, religion, and arbitrary markers of legitimacy, such as when they started vending. 

His message to comrades is urgent: “Babasaheb gave us the path: educate, agitate, organise. The BMC, police, courts, don’t belong to us; we only have each other. If we organise, we have a chance at survival.