Micropolitics of Urban Informality and Street Vendors in Kolkata

Street vending activities received formal legislative recognition in India, with the Parliament enacting the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act in 2014. Since then, the judiciary has sought to uphold the rule based order through the implementation of the Street Vendors Act. However, on-ground implementation of the progressive legislation remains challenging, and vendors continue to face harassment. Looking through the prism of “political society”, this article explores micro-level network politics around street vending in Kolkata. First, it discusses how the city’s political economic context played a role in the mobilisation of the vendors to resist state hegemony. Second, the study underscores the importance of local-level political networks in the implementation process. We bring out how political populism and clientelism play out in practice by highlighting the roles of neighbourhood-level socio-cultural organisations (para clubs) as intermediary actors in the process. Overall, the article provides a nuanced discussion about everyday contestations over street space

Business · Geography · Urban and Rural Development Challenges

• Informality and the paradox of legal subjecthood

  A Ray, Atriya Dey•Third World Quarterly•2026

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