5 December 2010

Making world class cities become buzzing word in India. Almost every city is preparing itself to build the world class cities to enter into competition with each other. In India, there are four important metropolises namely Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta and Chennai. These cities are preparing themselves as world class city to change its outlook but leave no hopes for the lives of poor especially street vendors, street children, beggars and others. In this intervention, The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) with support of StreetNet International is advocating that the world class cities should be created by treating the street vendors as a special component of the urban development/zoning plans and integral & legitimate part of the urban distribution system through its intensive "World Class Cities for All" Campaign. The campaign has starting from Delhi (capital of India), where the livelihood of around 200,000 street vendors are threatened due to preparation for hosting the Commonwealth Games 2010.The campaign aims to ensure that Street vendors in Delhi will find a permanent space in the Commonwealth City (World Class City) to earn their decent livelihood. (Report from StreetNet News #17, 2009)