Analysis of proposed Street Vendors’ Scheme in Ahmedabad

People in Centre carried out an analysis of the proposed Street Vendors’ Scheme for Ahmedabad to understand its implications for street vendors. The scheme, prepared by CEPT for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), organises vending zones into three categories — green, amber and red. Working with the SEWA team, People in Centre collected data for the Isanpur Town Planning area to verify how vendor-friendly the proposed scheme is. The analysis showed that the red, amber and green demarcations need to be reviewed: the current zoning prioritises the smooth flow of vehicular traffic over vending as a livelihood activity. Because heavily concentrated vending areas would fall under the red zone, vending would not be allowed on wider streets — the very streets that offer more customer interactions and avoid direct clashes over space with individual property owners. Under the current proposal, vendors would instead be pushed onto narrower streets, leading to direct confrontation with house owners and separating them from their potential clientele, who are mostly found near public spaces and junctions.