Discussions around street vendors usually begin with accusations of "encroachment." But these lives and livelihoods need to be understood within the wider story of the informal economy and the way our cities are planned.
A study jointly conducted by Karmojibi Nari and FES Bangladesh has surveyed 768 informal sector workers across the country. This study has identified about 450 occupations in Bangladesh's informal sector. Most of the workers are engaged in retail and sales, and others in agriculture and livestock, food and beverage services, transport, and craft.
An invisible backbone
The informal economy accounts for a major portion of Bangladesh's economy. The National Labour Force Survey of 2024 presents that about 84.07% of the workforce (59.68 million people approximately) were employed informally in 2023. A deeper look shows that women are especially part of the informal economy. Almost 95.96% of female workers were in informal employment, whereas this was 78.08% for male workers. Additionally, various studies estimate that this informal economy accounts for 40–43% of Bangladesh's GDP.
As a result, when the eviction drives are happening, for whatever justified reason, this is not only about a small group of the country's population. Rather, this is dealing with a large chunk of the economic base of the country.
However, this phenomenon is not unique to developing countries. Even the most advanced economies host substantial informal work—sometimes hidden in subcontracting, platform gigs, unpaid (or casually paid) domestic work, and micro-entrepreneurship. ILO/WIEGO data show that about 15.9% of employment in "higher-income countries" is informal. This means the informal economy is not a leftover of "under-development" but continues to operate across advanced societies.
Eviction makes for an easy spectacle, but the real and lasting challenge lies in designing a Dhaka that acknowledges its invisible workforce as part of the city's social and economic fabric.
This is especially significant in how we deal with vendors in Dhaka. They cannot be dismissed as mere "encroachers" to be removed, but must be recognised as citizens with basic rights. They are investing time and capital, paying informal rents and fees, and supporting households. When they are considered mere "encroachers", this invisibilises the economic aspects and strips off the minimal social protections they might access.
Globally, most cities regulate street vending rather than pursue outright eradication. This establishes it as an urban management problem. Brazil introduced its Micro-Entrepreneur (MEI) scheme back in 2009. This provides millions of micro-entrepreneurs with a simple registration path to access legal recognition and some formal benefits. Data from Brazil's National Statistics Agency (IBGE) show that by 2022, 14.6 million individuals were registered. Indonesian cities such as Jakarta have also attempted to formalise street vending. This has treated it as an urban reality rather than an anomaly, and designed vendor bays as part of spatial plans. This has recognised vendors' role in city life while managing the flows and safety of citizens.
What happened in Dhaka — and the way forward
In Bangladesh, in 2022, the Dhaka South City Corporation planned to designate parts of the city as red, yellow, and green zones to regulate vending. Two roads in the Gulistan area were marked red, and large-scale evictions followed. These ideas were used to justify eviction. However, no clear and participatory implementation, such as alternative spaces or transitional support, was observed. These evictions continued in waves, often without any relocation plans.
Sajib (name changed for anonymity) sells momos from a small stall tucked inside a residential lane in eastern Dhaka. He used to sell from a stall on the main road near a local college. After the eviction drive in the neighbourhood, he moved inside an alley with a smaller, "easy-to-go" stall setup. Although his sales have reduced significantly, it still gives him some means to survive. "Now, fewer customers come to the stall due to the location — but those who do, they keep coming back." Sajib learnt how to make momos when he was staying with some Nepali chefs in Dhaka. His story reflects the learning, adaptation, and resilience shared by countless other vendors. Yet, it also reveals a deeper reality—the shift towards increasingly fragile livelihoods across the country.The plans of eviction or anything else must be inclusion, not erasure. Drawing from global practices, a few concrete steps could be taken:
Transparent zoning and mapped vendor bays: Clear and concise data on pedestrian flow should be collected, and on the basis of that, vendor bays can be positioned beside footpaths. Some pilot models already exist in other Asian cities that can be adapted.
Simple registration method (micro-entrepreneur IDs): A simple mobile or market registration system with a low fee and minimal technological interference can be introduced to give vendors a legal identity. This will give them basic rights, e.g. protection from arbitrary eviction, access to small loans, and training.
Guaranteed transitional arrangements during clearances: In places where clearance is unavoidable (due to safety or infrastructure), relocations must be time-staged and include temporary income support. In such cases, there should be provisions for credit to re-establish stock.
Targeted social protection for women in informality: As the majority of the female working population are tied to the informal economy, there should be linked registration for health coverage and maternity support.
Tackle illicit extractive rents: There should be measures to eliminate the unofficial fees vendors pay to middlemen or enforcement actors. Instead, small, transparent municipal fees should be introduced and utilised to cover sanitation, lighting, and waste collection.
Eviction makes for an easy spectacle, but the real and lasting challenge lies in designing a Dhaka that acknowledges its invisible workforce as part of the city's social and economic fabric. A society that excludes its population is brittle, and one that dignifies its population builds resilience.
Ishtiaq Mohammod is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at East West University, Dhaka.
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