Street Vendors Protest at Walmart India Head Quarter on 19th Nov, 2014

Hawkers move towards historic victory

Meeting Rahul Gandhi on 3rd Feb 2014 and Hawkers Joint Action Committee protest and march at the Parliament on 5th Feb 2014 resulting into making passage of the street vendors bill top priority of Govt. Its listed as no 1 item of legislative business of the upper house. Hope its gets passed from the Parliament. The Lok Sabha has already passed the bill on 6th Sept, 2013.

Hawkers Public Hearing

Hawkers Public Hearing

More than one thousand hawkers representatives from various street markets of Delhi participated in a hawkers public hearing organized by Hawkers Joint Action Committee on 6th January in Delhi.

Nagraj Shetty of Saket, Joginder Sah of Okhla, Suryalal of Jangpura, Rupender of Lodi road, Sugan Pandey of South Ext, Laxmi Narayan of Madangiri, Santara Devi of Khan Market, Jhapari Devi of Malviya Nagar, Sunder Chouhan of Holy Family, Kamaluddin of Hauzrani, Munna Lal of kalka ji, Madho Singh of Sewa Nagar and Dilip of Janakpuri market were among those who spoke at length on how they are victimized by agencies of govt. including Delhi police, MCD, NDMC, PWD, DDA and DSIIDC.

Hawkers passed a resolution demanding:

1.       Enactment of Street Vendors Bill

2.       Implementation of Hon’ble Supreme Court order to follow street vendors policy 2009

3.       Ban on FDI in Retail 

save retail democracy rally 7th March 2013

Senior leaders of different political parties and retail stakeholders joined hands together at Save Retail Democracy Rally organised on 7^thMarch at historical Ram Leela maidan of Delhi. All major wholesale and retail markets of Delhi remained closed on the day.

Tens of thousands of retailers, farmers, hawkers, transporters, labourers, consumers, cooperatives, small scale industries and civil society organizations participated in the rally. An anthem "Jago Apne Watan Ko Bachao-Retail FDI Ko Bhagao" (wake up to save country and chase away Retail FDI) composed by noted bollywood music director Salim Suleman and conceptualised by leading Ad Company R.K.Swami BBDO was the star attraction of the rally.

Senior Leaders of different political parties including BJP President Mr. Rajnath Singh, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mr. Arun Jaitley, Chairman of Public Accounts Committ ee of Parliament Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, NDA Convener & Janta Dal (U) President Shri Sharad Yadav, Senior CPI Leader Comrade A. B. Bardhan, Leader of CPM in Loksabha Comrade Basudev Acharya, Comrade Amarjeet Kaur and Shri Pawan Kumar of central trade unions addressed the rally.

anti FTA Dharna

On 28^th February, 2013 a dharna (sit in protest) was organized at Parliament against the EU-India FTA. National centres of Trade Unions participated in the protest along with national and international civil society groups and social movements.

No FDI Retailer in East Delhi

People reject FDI in Retail in the Public Hearing organized by East Delhi Municipal Corporation

Trade Unions, Street Vendors Associations, RWAs & Civil Society expressed their opinion: 98% voted against FDI in Retail in the opinion poll

Respecting Peoples verdict EDMC will not grant trade licences to FDI Retailers: Mayor

In an unprecedented initiative, East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) organized a public hearing to take note of the peoples’ opinion on the issue of FDI in Retail. People from all sections of society including street vendors, small shop keepers, trade unions, resident welfare associations, civil society representative participated in the public hearing.

Delivering the opening remark, Dr. Annapurna Mishra, the Hon’ble Mayor of East Delhi said that the purpose of the initiative is to take note of the peoples’ voice to help the corporation in shaping trade policies.

An opinion poll was also conducted to know the views of participants. 98% participants opined against FDI in Retail.

Hakim Singh Rawat, R B singh Rajpoot, Sodan Singh, Bijender Yadav, Pravesh Sharma, Bansi Lal (street vendors), Praveen Khandelwal, Satish Garg, Raj Kumar Bhatia, Om Prakash Dubey, Deepak Sharma (Traders), Ashwini Mahajan (SJM), Aneesh Mishra (trade union) Vikramjeet Banerjee (Advocate) and many others expressed their view on FDI in Retail.

Concluding the public hearing senior journalist Sh. Ram Bahadur Rai said that in the past the Prime Minister was against FDI in Retail. He alleged that such policy decisions are influenced by powerful international lobby groups.

The Leader of opposition, Ms. Varyam Kaur, who was also invited for the public hearing came at the closing stages and abruptly interrupted the meeting shouting that the Municipal Corporation can not organize such event.

The Hon’ble Mayor stated that public opinion is evident on the issue of FDI in Retail and respecting the peoples’ verdict the EDMC would bring a motion to oppose FDI in Retail and would not grant any trade licences to FDI retailers.  She said that a detailed report of the proceedings would be send to the Hon’ble Lt. Governor and Chief Minister of Delhi.

Dharmendra Kumar of India FDI Watch conducted the proceeding.

Strike Report

India Strikes against FDI Retail

Today’s call for a nationwide strike (Bharat Bandh) by trade unions of street vendors, small traders, and most of the political parties from left to right and including of parties within the Govt.  and parties supporting the Govt. was historical. Millions of retailers and thousands of trade associations observed the bandh demanding rollback of FDI in multi-brand retail. All major markets were closed through out India. Public transport was off the roads and colleges, schools, offices and transport services remain shut in most part of India. Trains were blocked by political activists of BJP, SP and CPI (ML) in many places including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand. The station Master of Patna Railway Station was locked. The impact of the strike was also seen in states of the North East. The bandh was total in Manipur. Banks, markets, shops and educational institutions were closed, with government offices recording low attendance in Meghalaya. Railway, road and others services were heavily impacted in Jharkhand. Most colleges reported only 20-50% attendance in Mumbai.

In a sit in protest organised jointly by our campaign allies prominent national leaders from left to right shared the dais. NDA Convenor and JD(U) President Sharad Yadav asked the Congress to remove Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for this "attack on the bread of butter of 25 crore people", while addressing the protest at Jantar Mantar. Eight parties including left parties and SP took out protest march towards Parliament and Mulayam Singh Yadav, Prakash Karat, AB Bardhan, Sitaram Yechury and Chandrababu Naidu courted arrest in parliament police station. BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu was detained in Hyderabad whereas Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar got arrested in Bangalore.

On the other hand, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said to media that the nation-wide strike has caused a huge damage to the Indian economy and the common people. Big Business lobby group, CII reported to media that the nation-wide strike against the government decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail have caused losses to the tune of Rs12,500 crore ($2.25 billion) to the Indian economy.