A lot depended on the success of this project as it was to serve as a model for creating hawking zones all over Delhi and the fate of the national policy also depended on this. While there are over three lakh vendors in Delhi alone, a mere 3,000 of them have been given licences. The illegal status of more than 99% vendors makes them an easy target for extortionists who cause an income loss of at least Rs 500 crore per year to vendors by way of bribes, etc. This project was supposed to be an answer to the harassment faced by the vendors on a daily basis.

Manushi Sangathan brought about a visible change in the area. Vendors got equal-size kiosks, proper infrastructure such as pavements, water supply, wellmaintained parks and toilet blocks. To ensure cleanliness in the area, they even started a novel puja, Jhadu Pooja, and created a goddess, Manushi Swacchnarayni.

The Problem: As a result of development in the area, property prices shot up in the past three years. And local goons began to eye the lucrative vendor market. The head of Manushi Sangathan, Madhu Kishwar, says the goons were backed by certain enforcement agencies and local political leaders. ``They started attacking us. We were beaten up many times. The street vendors who supported us were roughed up and the police refused to register their FIRs till my lawyer intervened,'' she said.

Unable to grab stalls through violence or blackmail, the mafia started lending money at an exorbitant 120% rate of interest. On April 30, 2007 the goons even allegedly attacked Kishwar, who narrowly escaped. She said: ``The civic condition has deteriorated in the area and illegal stalls have also emerged. But we can do nothing about it. Since April, we have not been able to enter the market area. If the government appears too weak to resist the takeover of a small pilot project, it cannot possibly save hawking zones in the rest of Delhi and other cities from being similarly grabbed by criminals.''

Way out: To save the pilot project, Manushi has demanded that as per L-G Tejendra Khanna's directions, CCTVs should be installed in the project area to keep local goons at bay. It has also asked for appropriate punitive action against criminal elements who are out to grab the kiosks. Manushi also wants an independent commission, headed by L-G, to be set up to institutionalise a rational, honest and accountable system for legalising the status of street vendors and to prevent people with vested interests from capturing vending spots in hawking zones.

Said Kishwar: ``A citywide computerised database should also be created by a credible and independent agency to identify those who are actually operating on the streets, their exact location, as well as the total number of street vendors operating in Delhi, as a first step towards determining who qualifies for tehbazari.''