Street vendors are broadly defined as persons working in the informal sector, offering goods and services on the street in the absence of permanent built-up structures. The term 'urban street vendor incorporates all local and regional terms used to describe them such as hawkers, feriwallas, rehri-patri wallas, footpath dukandars and sidewalk traders, among others. They are classified as (a) stationary, setting up their businesses on pavements, public/private spaces (b) mobile, wherein they move from one place to another carrying their goods on bicycles or mobile units (Bhowmik, 2005) and (c) peripatetic, who carry out vending on foot. Informal street vending not only provides gainful employment to one of the most marginalised sections of the urban poor but also contributes to the urban economy by providing cost-effective goods and services to middle-class households at affordable rates. Additionally, street vendors provide a platform for marketing goods manufactured by small-scale industries, allowing them to sell their products to the masses through minimal investment in infrastructure or advertising (Saha, 2011). Lastly, the popularity of street vendors can also be attributed to their dispersed locations across urban neighbourhoods, providing goods and services to consumers within easy reach.

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