National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) in collaboration with StreetNet International hosted the 3rd Asian Regional Workshop. The meeting of the Asian affiliates was held from 28 – 30th August 2014 at Hotel “The Grand”, New Delhi, India. Affiliates were from six organisations,, of which five Asian countries attended the workshop- KOSK (South Korea), IDEA (Cambodia), LIE (Bangladesh), SEWA (India) and NASVI (INDIA).
The objective of the workshop was to improve campaigning skills, develop action plans and explore possible region wide actions relating to the issues and challenges faced by the street vendors in the Asian countries. The workshop also aimed to review regional priorities, exchange experiences and share information on activities undertaken at the national and regional levels by the participating organisations in their respective countries.
The first day of the workshop started with a brief introduction speech by Mr. Anurag Shanker, Program Manager, NASVI welcoming all the affiliates in the meeting. National Coordinator NASVI, Mr. Arbind Singh, NASVI Vice President Mr. Chandra Prakash Singh and Senior advisor to NASVI, Mr. Sharit Bhowmik were also present.
The three day workshop had various activities in its agenda which included presentations and discussions on internal democracy of the participating organisations; Inclusive Urban Policies; Collective Negotiations Forums at local government level; Participatory litigation strategies; strengthening and promotion of Social Protection Floors for street vendors, integrating youth organisation and policies; Cross-border traders’ organisation and issues and challenges of the street food vendors in Asia.
Based upon the discussions of the three day meeting, a draft recommendation was prepared to be sent to StreetNet International and the respective governments of the participating countries. The recommendations pertained to developing of a network to deal with cross border trades, integrating youth organisations and policies and expanding the collective bargaining process in those Asian countries where there are no laws or policies from street vendors. Other recommendations included expanding the outreach of the RFP Asia, to increase visit exchange among affiliates and to open separate bank account for RFP Asia. All these recommendations were read out to all and the same was confirmed and accepted by the affiliates.
