Twilight transformation

Street vendors often live a life filled with fear, despair, and uncertainty. Night/evening schools could be a silver lining for those hoping to change their lives. While there are options for open schools, night schools would make the process of education faster and more regular.

Street vendors are well recognised in India by virtue of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. The Act was promulgated to protect the livelihood rights and social security of urban street vendors in the country. The statute aims to create a congenial environment for street vendors to carry out their activities without unnecessary harassment. It also provides for the regulation of urban street vending and is uniformly and mandatorily applicable to all States and Union Territories. The Act defines a street vendor as a person engaged in vending articles, goods, wares, food items, or merchandise of everyday use or offering services to the general public in a street, lane, sidewalk, footpath, pavement, public park, or any other public place or private area, from a temporary built-up structure or by moving from place to place. They include hawkers, peddlers, squatters, and all other synonymous terms which may be local or region-specific.

Apart from the promulgation of provisions regulating their work, focus also needs to be made on enhancing their quality of life, which can be done through education. Education is a human right and a necessity for developing the human mind. One solution is the opening of night and evening schools for street vendors and other marginalised groups, in addition to open schools. A night or evening school is a school that holds classes in the evening or at night, especially to accommodate people who work during the day.

In India, there are some night schools for children in various places. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some elementary and high schools in the United States provided evening classes for children from poor families who were engaged in farm work. Night schools in China have also been popular. According to records, these were initiated during the industrial revolution and were designed to bridge the gap between work and education, as well as to enhance skills. As early as the 1920s, workers' night schools were established in different regions. From literacy to vocational education, languages, and other areas, night schools have enabled young individuals to enhance their knowledge. The first evening schools, called scuola serale, opened in Italy in the first half of the nineteenth century with the main aim of literacy.

With technology making the world a smaller place, there could also be possibilities of exploring e-night schools for hawkers, allowing them to learn from the comfort of their homes and avoid spending time on travel. This could include recorded classes with compulsory attendance to some extent. Since vendors have the liberty to work according to their own timings, based on customer demand, there could be an augmentation of both evening and night schools, with choice and flexibility given to vendors. These schools need not be for longer hours, and start times should be fixed in consultation with various street vendors. Government schools in local areas could be utilised, allowing street sellers to use any school nearest to their place.

The Indian Constitution has provisions to ensure that the state provides education to all its citizens. The Indian Constitution, in its original enactment, defined education as a state subject. Under Article 42 of the Constitution, an amendment was added in 1976 and education became a concurrent list subject. Education and vocational training could be life-changing opportunities for vendors, creating more employment opportunities, leading to career advancement, and securing a better income. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights inter alia declares that everyone has the right to education. Equality, as enshrined in the Constitution, can be achieved with the formulation of policies and provisions catering to the basic needs of varied classes of people.

Education acts as a catalyst for better economics and social upliftment. Without education, there would be rampant inequality and limited opportunities. While a lot of improvements have taken place for street hawkers in the last couple of years, additionally providing education to street vendors, who constitute a major part of our population, will uplift us as a country. It shall be a gain for each one of us.

The writer is a practising Advocate in Supreme Court and High Court of Delhi. Views expressed are personal