Urban Transport Integration

I have often wondered about the poor state of integration of urban transport services in India. In this blog, I am considering various ways in which integration can be achieved in India.

Definition of integration
While reading through various articles on this topic, I came across a set of documents which consider integration is a process or while another set of documents which consider integration a state of a system. Prior is the dynamic perspective in which integration is a process while latter is a static perspective where integration is a state of transport system at equilibrium.

According to dynamic perspective, there is an optimal process of integration that will eventually lead to an optimal state (which itself keeps changing). The challenge is to find the optimal process i.e. optimal institutional structure and regulatory mechanism to achieve integration. According to static perspective, there is an optimum level of integration and the system has to achieve this state by any process. Thus, the relevant question is to find the optimal state i.e. mix of transport modes and level of integration.

To me, both of these questions (what is the optimal process of integration and what is the optimal level and mix of integration) are important and both these questions should be answered together and not separately.

Some transport planners consider integration to be applicable only to the public transport modes and interactions within the public transport. But, most of the transport planners believe that integration should encompass whole transport mobility chain i.e. it should consider public as well as private transport modes including non motorized transport modes. In recent years, planners have adopted even wider concept for integration, where integration also includes convergence of transport planning and urban and land use planning.

Here, I am defining integration as a dynamic process which leads towards an optimal state of transport considering whole transport chain. It also include the convergence of urban planning and transport planning as a part of integration process in order to achieve a sustainable transport system. I am only focusing here on integration of public transport and the instruments which could be used to integrate services. Various kinds of integration in urban public transport include complementary routes, schedule integration (frequency matching), fare integration, physical integration of transfer points, information sharing, common marketing, resource sharing and technology sharing.

To me, there are three main ways of making these integration happen: market driven (informal arrangement-driven by the economic incentives of all the players involved), coordination driven (formal arrangement among service providers-mainly driven by the one group of players and the benefit is shared with all), and government driven.

1. Market driven
Simplest possible instrument is a market driven phenomenon. The level of integration keeps increasing as the system evolves over a period in a given urban area. Such integrations are driven from supplier side due to their commercial interests as illustrated in the table below

	Before Integration			After Integration
	Player 1	Player 2	Total	Player 1	Player 2	Total
Revenue	1100	600	1700	1254	654	1908
Cost	1000	500	1500	1100	525	1625
Profit	100	100	200	154	129	283
% Profit	10%	20%	13%	14%	25%	1

Source: Idea adopted from NEA et al., (2003)

The table above shows (a hypothetical case) how integration can be beneficial for both parties under certain assumption of cost and revenue increase. The over all profit also increases for the system. In such cases, there may not be any explicit understanding between the service providers initially but services evolve in a complementary manner due to their economic interest in a game theory framework.

2. Coordination Driven
The integration may be driven by one or more service providers as their benefits are much higher from others. As Table below illustrates, under certain assumptions of cost and revenue pre and post integration, one player may be able to get higher benefit and may even be ready to share with another player, who is either in a worse or status-co situation. In the given case, Player 1 may take the lead to share a part of the profit with the other players post integration. This integration is possible by forming a coordinating committee, where player 1 takes the lead.

	Before Integration			After Integration
	Player 1	Player 2	Total	Player 1	Player 2	Total
Revenue	1100	600	1700	1254	654	1908
Cost	1000	500	1500	1100	545	1645
Profit	100	100	200	154	109	263
% Profit	10%	20%	13%	14%	20%	16%

Source: Idea adopted from NEA et al., 2003

The committee may be constituted with high level authorities from various service providing firms, who wish to integrate their services. The formation of committee creates avenues for formal discussion between various service providers to arrive at service parameters and formula for sharing revenue. This allows each of the service providers to have their individual freedom to a large extent.

3. Government Driven

There can be cases where no player has enough incentive for integration. The marginal advantage from integration is just enough to compensate the loss of other players. Table below depicts a case, where the benefit to player 1 is just enough to share with player 2. In this case none of the players have any apparent incentive to initiate the process of integration given the initial hassles that may come across.

	Before Integration			After Integration
	Player 1	Player 2	Total	Player 1	Player 2	Total
Revenue	1100	550	1650	1221	594	1815
Cost	1000	500	1500	1100	550	1650
Profit	100	50	150	121	44	165
% Profit	10%	10%	10%	11%	8%	10%

Source: Adopted from NEA et al., 2003

Table below shows a more realistic picture for public transport firms i.e. most of them are having operational losses. In this case, players have little soft budget constraints and hence little incentive to perform better.

	Before Integration			After Integration
	Player 1	Player 2	Total	Player 1	Player 2	Total
Revenue	500	300	800	575	324	899
Cost	1000	500	1500	1080	525	1605
Profit	-500	-200	-700	-505	-201	-706
% Profit	-50%	-40%	-47%	-47%	-38%	-44%

Source: Adopted from NEA et al., 2003

This type of integration instrument must be driven by the government. Regulatory board or authority may be an instrument to arrive at an integrated service through government intervention. Regulatory board/authority would be binding on all the service providers as a result of which this entity may also curb some of the freedoms of the individual players.

In this case, a planned transport development can be carried out. Also, this allows implementing competitive transport services and attracting private sector funding. Even urban and land use planning, and development can be linked with transport development for a sustainable transport within the scope of this instrument.


Concluding Remarks
The realities of the state of transport in India is depicted through the last table discussed under government initiative. Hence, to me, integration can only be achieved through government initiative. However, creating a rule or an organization may not be enough as discussed in the earlier blog on 'National policy on urban street vendors and its effect'. The organization/rules need to be supported by modification in the existing rules and rights of organizations.

Frequency of blog writting

A new blog will appear every alternate Monday. I would prefer to receive comments below the blog itself rather than in my mail box. Hope you have a good time reading.

Satyam Shivam Sundaram

National Policy on Urban Street Vendors and its Effect

There are large number informal markets in the developing countries. In India, most of the larger cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Patna etc) have thousands of people working in the informal market in different occupations. One such occupation is street vending or hawking (In strict sense, vendors are those who stick to a place and sell while hawkers are those who move from one place to other for selling. Hawkers are also called peddler or packman). Hereafter, I am using the word vendor for both vendors and hawkers, since the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors (2004) refers to both of them as vendors.

According to an estimate, Mumbai has approximately 250,000 vendors and thus supports the largest number of street vendors, while Delhi, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad have approximately 200,000, 150,000, and 100,000 vendors (National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2004). Most of these vendors in Kolkata and Ahmedabad were previously working as laborers in various industries (which closed over the time) in these cities. Vendors often face the threat of being dislocated and their articles confiscated by the city administration, in most part of the country, while earning their livelihood on the urban roads. I am making an effort to understand the importance of the national policy on street vendors in resolving their problems in this blog.

Vendors play an import role in urban sustainability. They provide products/articles at a lower cost to the lower and middle income group. Vendors help people reduce their expenditure also by facilitating purchase of articles, while they are on their way back home or they are exercising a trip for other purposes. In the absence of these vendors, lower and middle class will find it very difficult to sustain their livelihood in urban areas. This will have other implications on the whole equilibrium of an urban society. The absence of vendors will also mean reduction in the availability of manual labor in an urban area, as some of their family members also provide the labor forces for upper income group. Hence, vendors are an integral part of the urban society. They not only earn their livelihood from hawking but also help the lower and middle income group families sustain their lives in the urban areas.

On the negative side, vendors occupy the sides of the road and thus block the pedestrian pathway, if any and sometimes even a part of the road. Thus, they reduce the road capacity by attracting crowd, who come to purchase/glance, towards their articles. This adds to the existing problems of urban transport. Sometimes, these vendors establish permanent shops on unauthorized land or road side creating a challenge for the urban authorities. They also litter the place with disposed articles. Due to these reasons, various government agencies always try to remove them from the urban street. Hence, urban vendors are on one hand beneficial for the society and on the other create nuisance as well.

To understand the importance of the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors in resolving the issues that arise in the urban society, first the issues related to urban vendors need to be understood. The cases involving vendors, heard in the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts have been used to understand the issues related to them. These cases also help us understand and interpret the constitutional obligation of the government towards them (which may change over the years). Thereafter, the draft policy has been analyzed to see how these issues have been dealt with. The final step is to understand the gaps that still remain to be bridged to solve the problem fully.


Let us understand the constitutional obligations of the state towards the people of India and their rights as provided by the Constitution of India.

Article 14 (Equality before law): The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.

Article 19(1)(g): All citizens shall have the right to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.

Article 19(6): Nothing in sub-clause (g) of the said clause [19(1)(g)] shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law imposing, in the interests of the general public, reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause, and, in particular, nothing in the said sub-clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it relates to, or prevent the State from making any law relating to (i)the professional or technical qualifications necessary for practicing any profession or carrying on any occupation, trade or business, or (ii)the carrying on by the State, or by a corporation owned or controlled by the State, of any trade, business, industry or service, whether to the exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens or otherwise.

Article 21(Protection of life and personal liberty): No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

Apart from the above mentioned articles, directive principles of the state policy in the schedule IV of the constitution provides guidelines for the state towards the people of India.

The cases, heard by the Supreme Court of India and the various High Courts of India which are discussed here, only relate to the fundamental questions raised and the explanations given by the Courts. The cases have been used to synthesize the issues that vendors are facing in India. I refrain from going into the details of each case and discussing the specific facts of each case.

Sodan Singh and Others vs. New Delhi Municipal Committee and Others (1989 Indlaw SC 213):

The fundamental question that was addressed by the Supreme Court of India, in this case, was whether the rights provided in Article 19(1)(g) and Article 21 of the constitution be restricted by the government under the Article 19(6) of the constitution.

The Court held that vendors have the right to carry out their business for their livelihood on the road sides, as long as they do not interfere with the rights of other people. This means that their rights to carry out road side business can be reasonably restricted depending on the utilization of the road or any other area. Vendors can not ask for a fundamental right to occupy any place permanently and they can only have temporary arrangements without disrupting others. The primary objective of the road is movement of person and goods between two points through some medium. This means that in the current scenario the police can use this judgment to harass the vendors so long as no fixed arrangements are made by the government or the local body.

From the case it can be suggested that the draft policy should provide a reasonable space for the vendors for carrying out their business or help them establish alternate medium for their livelihood.

Olga Tellis and Others Vs Bombay Municipal Corporation and Others (1985 Indlaw SC 161)

This case pertains to slum dwellers. The judgment again held that slum dwellers have no right to erect permanent structure on the road side and they can be removed by the government body. However, under the Article 21 of the constitution, government was asked to make alternative arrangements for these slum dwellers before they are removed. It was recognized that the local body and the government needs to provide them alternate rehabilitation. This case does not directly deal with the rights of the vendors, but the guidelines provided by the courts are also useful for the rights of the vendors.

This case has pointed out making alternate arrangement is as much a duty of the government as much as their removal for the benefit of some other urban population.

Bombay Hawkers' Union and Others Vs Bombay Municipal Corporation and Others (1985 Indlaw SC 191)

In this case the Supreme Court of India provided certain guidelines for the government as well as vendors. Vendors were restricted from creating any permanent structure and were expected to cooperate with the municipal corporation in keeping the roads clean. The government was advised to create hawking zones to avoid discomfort to the other users of the road as well as the vendors.

Municipal Corporation of Delhi Vs Gurnam Kaur (1988 Indlaw SC 703)

The court ordered against the vendors in this case by saying that there was no threat to their life by the removal of their stall in this particular case. However the honorable court went a step further in suggesting that hawkers’ and non hawkers’ zone may be created to avoid this forceful squattering for the vendors. It was suggested that such a move will be able to achieve twin objective of cleaner city and will also reduce the congestion on the road.

Gulamali Gulamnabi Shaik Vs Municipal Commissioner (1986 GLH 616)

The Supreme Court directed the government to frame rules and regulations for vendors for providing them license and space for carrying out their business. This was done to avoid harassment and trouble for vendors. This also provided neater and clear city to other road users.

From the above cases, following issues emerge: (i) Regulation regarding the place where business can be carried out, (ii) Regulation regarding the articles that can be sold by the vendors, (iii) Regulations and procedures regarding eviction of vendors, (iv) Issues of extortion, bribery and harassment of street vendors, and (v)Issues of relocation and rehabilitation

Resolving these issues will help the primary users of the road by proving them cleaner and less crowded roads and at the same time reducing the hassles for vendors.

The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors addresses most of the issues raised earlier and provides a few guidelines. The policy was drafted to provide and promote a supportive environment for earning livelihoods to the street vendors as well as ensure absence of congestion and maintenance of hygiene in public spaces and streets (National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2004). The specific sections of this policy is highlighted to understand how these would resolve the issues related to vendors.

The policy has aimed to provide vendors a legal status and to allow them carry out their business in the designated areas. These designated areas are to be called hawkers’ zones and non hawkers’ zones. These zones need to become a part of the planning process (section 4.1.1 of the policy).

The guideline suggests that enough space should be designated for vendors’ at least to the extent of 2% to 2.5 % of the total city population (section 4.2.1 of the policy). The guideline also provides the flexibility to the city with regard to exact norms.

Vendors are also expected to register and should be monitored by the town vending committee/ward vending committee (section 4.1.1). Participation of vendors in the town vending committee/ward vending committee should be ensured. This will help reduce their harassment.

The policy also provides guidelines for relocation and rehabilitation of vendors. Vendors are to be assisted and any loss of assets should be avoided as a part of rehabilitation process.

The policy guideline has also tried to address the issue of confiscation under section 5 where guidelines have been provided to safe guard the interests of the vendors. There is a clear indication that eviction should be the last resort and reasonable time should be given for relocation. They should also be assisted in establishing their business in a new place. Section 8 discusses the insurance and financial problems of the vendors. For financing, NABARD and SJSRY scheme has been indicated in the policy. But the policy fails to recognize that these polices have a limited resources and they may not be concentrating on vendors, thereby making it a promise that will never get executed. For insurance, there is little in the policy. A lot has been left to self help groups and NGOs. This is another area where a structured long term solution needs to be worked out. The policy also talks about the need for changing the sections of IPC and municipal acts so enable the guidelines effectively. However, the guidelines do not talk about any framework or the time period for modification and leaves it open for the states to take any action in this regard.

Thus the guideline addresses most of the issues raised over the years and should have been able to change the status of the street vendors to some extent. However, the guideline has not spelt a framework for enacting some of their guidelines. This failure has been the primary reason for the negligible change over the two years in any part of the country.

Plossible Reasons for Failure

Even after the guidelines provided by the ‘National Policy on Street Vendors’, there has been little change in the status of vendors over the years. A part of the reason could be the policy itself. The policy discusses a lot of things regarding allocating of land, legalization of profession and registration. But the policy has not indicated a time frame or a road map for the same. There is a discussion for the change in the laws related to local bodies and Police Act of various states and sections 283 (Danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation: Whoever, by doing any act, or by omitting to take order with any property in his possession or under his charge, causes danger, obstruction or injury to any person in any public way or public line of navigation, shall be punished with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees) and 431 (Mischief by injury to public road, bridge, river or channel: Whoever commits mischief by doing any act which renders or which he knows to be likely to render any public road, bridge, navigable river or navigable channel, natural or artificial, impassable or less safe for traveling or conveying property, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both) of IPC. However, till date nothing much has been done in this direction i.e. these have not been amended.

Section 283 and Section 431 of IPC provides administration a lethal weapon to use against the vendors. Using these acts, police is able to extract money from the vendors and trouble them. These acts need to be modified as also stated in the policy. Until then, the policy formulated for vendors may not be effective in reducing the harassment for the urban poor. However, while amending the laws, enough precautions need to be taken so that no one should be able to use it to create larger problems for a society. A time frame should be fixed for the changes.

Different urban local bodies (e.g. municipal corporations and urban development authorities) have various laws which are currently used against the vendors. These laws also need to be amended to make the national policy on vendors an effective one. Some of these laws are discussed here.

(i) Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
Ahmedabad municipal corporation laws allow the arrest of vendors for obstructing the traffic without warrant. They are liable to be fined. The act also does not allow any hawking of goods without a proper license from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. There property can also be removed immediately.

Thus this act allows enough power to the city police and municipal administration. Until such acts are modified the national policy can not be effective. The modification in the act should be carried out along with policy intervention at the local government level to establish a hawkers’ zone and safeguard the interest of the primary users of the road. Registration process should be made simple so that they are encouraged to register.

(ii) Bangalore
Bangalore bylaws have some relief for the vendors. It recognizes the need for identifying separate area for vending and also has provisions for allowing street vending without making the place dirty on certain identified streets. However, there are also regulations regarding the movement of vendors around free spaces and park more driven by need for cleanliness rather than obstruction.

(iii) Bhubaneshwar
Orissa municipality act, 1950 allows for public market at designated places with a fee being paid to the municipality. All participants need to have a license and it can be canceled by the municipality if they find that the particular vendor has not been functioning in accordance with the regulations. Thus, hawkers here have some legal rights. However the registration process needs to be made smooth and less complicated.

(iv) Kolkata
Calcutta municipality act does not allow any hawking activity near any road or free area. Their articles can be seized immediately and the person can be detained. This is surprising, given that a communist government has been in power for a long time in West Bengal.

A few times hawkers have been evicted forcefully confiscating their articles in the past. Quite a few of these hawkers are the previous manual workers of the industries in and around Kolkata which have shut down over the years. Thus, it is the only livelihood for them. The government laws only allow the administration to harass the vendors and extract some illegal money. Thus this law also needs to be modified accordingly.

(v) Mumbai
Municipal Corporation of Mumbai allows for hawking activities with permission and under license from municipality. However, it has been found that there are very few vendors who are registered with Corporation. Most of them run their hawking activities illegally by paying bribe to the local police officers because of the complexities related with registration process. The municipality does not allow for permanent structure even to the licensed persons.

(vi) Patna
The Patna Municipal Corporation Act is also similar to the other acts discussed above. It does not allow any goods to be sold on the road without prior permission of the municipality in the form of a license. Any person obstructing the traffic and any other movement may be arrested without warrant and fined, if found guilty. Thus, this act can be used to harass the vendors and is used to extract money from them illegally. There is a need to modify this act to make it little friendlier for the vendors

My Final Remark
As seen from the various acts that exit in different parts of the country, it is possible to harass the vendors and extract money from them. It is also possible to evict them from the road side without prior notice. In some places, their goods can be confiscated. Thus, just having a National Policy on Vendors will not serve the purpose. As the other local body acts, IPC sections and Police acts can be used against the vendors. There is a need to modify these acts so as to make the National Policy effective.

At a more abstract level, one of the biggest problems in India that I perceive is that new laws/regulations are formed but the laws/regulations in other areas which affect the ensuing law/regulations are not repealed. It is the same story with creation of new organizations to plan/implement a particular task. As a consequence of which, the bureaucracy keeps increasing rather than a reduction in the same as the activities have to pass through all the organization that existed for the purpose earlier as well as the new organization in some form or the other.

Demon is Coming

It was a hot sunny day. People could be seen rushing to their destinations. I along with a friend of mine set out to meet a person who was displaced from his/her house as a consequence of some development activities in any part of the city of Ahmedabad. We were passing through the Subhash Bridge on Sabarmati river, when my eyes caught a group of people standing near few temporary structures, replicating mini tents constructed with torn clothes and plastic sheets, by the side of the road (on the footpath). They were probably sharing some lighter moments. I asked my friend to stop the vehicle. By the time our vehicle stopped, we had moved nearly 100m ahead of them. After parking the vehicle on the footpath, we moved towards them. The moment they saw us coming towards them, the smile vanished from their faces. I could overhear one of them saying, “Demon is coming”. I did not ask anything immediately. I stood there looking around and then focused my eye on one person. No one was saying anything. At last, I decided to break silence and introduced myself. They reacted as if they had never heard of either of the institutes and probably they had not! I told them that we wanted to make a story based on their life to understand the implication of government policies and bring out governance issues. They completely misunderstood us and thought that we are either from the media or from some government body who had come to help them and surrounded us with lot of hope and expectations. The smile resurfaced as they realized that we are not the demolition crew known as ‘demon’ in their slang.

Mrs. Vinu Ben attempted to make a conversation. However, she did not say anything apart from moving her lips and making some facial expressions. Then, I look the lead and reintroduced myself and the purpose for which I was there. She agreed for a conversation, excerpts of which are provided below.

She said, “I have one son and three daughters. I moved to Ahmedabad seven years back. Before that, I used to stay on the road side in Vadaj”. She recollected that she got married to Mr. Dinesh Bhai around fifteen years back. A few years after her marriage, her husband and brothers split and they moved to Vadaj. They had a small house by the side of one of the main roads in Vadaj.

Seven years back, their house was demolished for widening the road. They were asked to move, however they claim that they did not get any compensation from the government. When enquired about benefits either monitory or in kind from the government for demolising the house, the answer came in negative. They moved to Ahmedabad with an expectation to earn better and manage meal twice a day. In her own words, she said, “Vadaj was not providing us enough earnings to manage even one meal a day. With the family increasing from two persons to three and to four, my husband was the only person who could go out to work. I was not able to work for few months while carrying a baby as well as till a few months after the delivery. This made our life even miserable as the number of earning persons reduced from two one.” After a pause she said, “So we migrated to Ahmedabad city”. The pain was evident on her face while she was putting her past together.

In Ahmedabad, they first stayed on city roads. This allowed both the husband and the wife to work. Wife could go to nearby houses to earn wage whereas husband could sell vegetables and other stuff on the road side. However, he was tortured/harassed by the city policy and the traffic police on most of the days for selling on the road side. He had to pay a bribe up to Rs 10 which was a large sum for him. Sometime local dadas also used to harass and ask for hufta. They used to sleep on the road side in a temporary tent constructed with torn cloths and plastic sheets.

“Life was moving on”, said Mrs. Vinu Ben with a smile and content. One fine day, the police came early morning and asked them to move away as some new construction had to start in the area. The road was to be widened and a multi storied building was getting constructed across the road. The so called aesthetics demanded their removal. They were given two days time to move away.

The history repeated in Ahmedabad quite frequently and they had to move once again. They had no clue as to where should they settle. Mrs. Vinu Ben was visibly distressed and uttered, “Those demons came and dragged us out of our tent and threw whatever we possess in a couple of minutes and we couldn’t do anything”. Mrs. Vinu Ben referred to the development authorities/policeman/demolition crew as ‘Demon’ which for them stood for ‘demolition crew'. In literal terms also, the demolition crew were demons in their life.

They moved near Sabarmati river and decided to live by the road side. She said.” This place is better as we could get water from the river”. The quality of water was never a question for them. She continued, “We don’t have to worry about sanitation as much as we were worried about it while staying by the city road side. We can use the river bank now”. So they settled near Subhash bridge. However, she faced higher pollution (air and noise) and the family (with kids) became more vulnerable to high speed moving traffic.

Dinesh Bhai used to go for work early morning and would come back very late in the evening. The work could be anything from selling vegetables to carrying goods on his thela. If any construction work going on, he would even go there for work so that he could get better wage. They had four kids: one boy and three girls. All of them were young and the difference between the eldest and the youngest was little over five years. Mr. Dinesh Bhai used to earn Rs. 40 to Rs. 60 per day after a struggle that used to start at 7 AM and get over by 10 PM. Three meals a day was a distant dream for them. They used to have normally one meal a day in the night. In case of no earning on a given day, they would go begging so that they can have food at least once. I asked Mrs. Vinu Ben, “Why don’t you also work as you used to when you were in the city”. She said, “Kids are small and they can not stay near this fast moving traffic alone. Some times, kids get lost also”. She feared that some mafia smuggles them to sell for petty amount to people who need household servants.

When we enquired about schooling of the kids, she replied in negative. There was no school on the highway. The nearest school was three km away and it was not possible for kids to go that far on their own. The male members had to leave for work early morning and hence they could not take the kids to the school and get them back. There was also a constant fear of police coming and removing their hut.

I could observe that the tent floor was very clean. The utensils were clean and empty. She was waiting for the sunset and her husband to come back, before she could cook the first meal of the day. Kids used to have tough time initially, staying empty stomach for the whole day. But slowly they learnt that they have no choice. Sometimes, some of the elder kids also used to go for begging near the junction to earn even a couple of rupees during the day.

I also saw some random brick structure in a nearby area. After an enquiry, I was told that it was an area demarked for those who have been displaced due to development activities. Mrs. Vinu Ben did not get any place in the demarked area as none of the family members had voter id cards. No one was ready to even listen to their pain. Bureaucrats, politicians, and police used to receive them with detest and would not even let them come near themselves.

I asked one of the persons from their group as to why is he smoking especially when earning is so difficult for them? The answer came with a smile. “This reduces our sorrow and helps us work for longer hours. I spend five rupees a day on smoking. But if I do not smoke, I will not be able to earn Rs. 50 every day.”, said the person. The young man went on to say, “It is like a fuel and an entertainment for us”. This revealed another side of the street life. People take even drugs to be able to come out of grief and to work continuously for long hours in any season.

During rainy season, they face a lot of difficulty. They have to save money to buy plastic sheets, costing Rs 200, to cover the top of their tent so that at least their kids can survive the rough weather. During winter months, they get help from Gandhi Ashram in the form of blankets. “Summer is horrible for us. It is very difficult for us to take care of very young kids. Some of them even die in the heat wave”, explained Mrs. Vinu Ben.

Even after all these troubles, they did not have any complain against the government. Mrs Vinu Ben said in her own language, “I don’t have any complains with the government. They are doing their job. It is our fate. I just want the government not to disturb us if they can not help us in making our life better”. They just wanted some support so that they can send their kids to school and some permanent place where they do not have the constant fear of the demon coming and spoiling their life.

Acknowledgement:
I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Ms. Johana, Mr. Eishak, and Mr. Kiran in helping me identify the family and being a facilitator during the first meeting.

My First Post - An Introduction

What could have been a better day to join the bloggers community then my B'day. I had been seriously planning to venture into writing blog for at least couple of months now. I have been reading blogs for last two years and have come across quite a few serious blogs on various subjects which provided me the impetus for starting a new blog and here I am in front of you with my ideas.

Let me also take this opportunity to introduce myself. I graduated from IIT Madras with B Tech (Civil Engineering) and M Tech (Infrastructural Civil Engineering) and worked for couple of years with L&T Ramboll Engineering Ltd and IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corporation before joining IIM Ahmedabad as a PhD student in the Public Systems Group. Details regarding my personal and professional life can be obtained from stdwww.iimahd.ernet.in/~sss/

Hope you enjoy reading through various blogs.