The Rustic in Townsman

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THE removal of 'gadas' from Panaji’s streets at the directive of the High Court provides a golden opportunity for city planners and administrators to do something on a permanent basis in order to rid the capital city of the ‘gada nuisance’. We do not mean any disrespect to the livelihood or social status of those who own and operate those mobile-turned-immobile kiosks. They are mostly people who earn a low income from retailing various products or selling homemade snacks. We have all the sympathy for them. Those who have been removed – must be rehabilitated the soonest possible. It would be better and more wholesome if the High Court could simultaneously have the authorities give a deadline and blueprint for rehabilitation. The gada owners live from day to day, and many of them might already be financially troubled by the loss of business for so many days. Their rehabilitation has to be taken up on an urgent basis and not left to bureaucratic mercies that could take a generation for the alternative to materialize – and most likely unsatisfactorily.

We have to understand that roadside kiosks or carts or footpath vendors are a creation of a centuries-old culture that has seen markets in our country only in that form. Malls, stores and pucca shopping streets are of recent origin, and people still do not find it as comfortable to shop at these centres as at a market which resembles more like the weekly or biweekly haat that used to be held in different parts of the state. Organised shops in a concrete ambience have a formal code, whereas these village haats had a totally informal atmosphere. The gadas and footpath vendors are there therefore because a large number of people are culturally attuned to patronise them.

The gadas being a two-way affair – that is, a large number of people patronising them and a number of poor people finding low-income self-employment – the High Court and the authorities would be ignoring a very important part of the shopping and vending culture we have had for ages. It is a cultural trait of the people that needs to be preserved, rather than bulldozed by the concrete, formal and forbidding store culture. This trait may not show in any architectural or art form, but it is still heritage and in a land that is inspired by Gandhi must be respected and promoted.

We should set three objectives for ourselves: One, rid the Panaji streets and footpaths of all gadas. Two, provide the displaced gadas an alternative site. Three, provide their clientele continued enjoyment of easy and informal shopping at those gadas. By fulfilling these three objectives we will be taking care of all the three concerns: The integrity of capital’s streets, the livelihood of the gada owners and the cultural trait of the people. Let the city planners find one or more sites where the gadas must be located together. The selection of the sites must be done keeping in view the accessibility to the shopping people. These sites, once the gadas are in, would look like another municipal market but then that is what a majority of people feel comfortable with.

Once all the gada owners displaced by the current drive have been rehabilitated in such sites, there must not be any gada allowed ever on the streets of the city. If any poor person wants to have a roadside business, he should be asked to look around anywhere else in the state but not in Panaji. If other cities and towns also follow Panaji and locate their roadside vendors in one or more sites, the new entrepreneur wanting to set up a gada should take a seat in one of those sites and not on the streets of Margao, Porvorim or Canacona.

The state and city authorities may take advantage of some of the schemes of the central government in tackling this problem. For instance, the Union Ministry for Food Processing Industries is ready to grant a financial assistance of Rs 5 crore to Goa for setting up a ‘Food Street’ in the state. Why do not the state authorities find a site in Panaji for a ‘Food Street’ to rehabilitate food gadas? It would help residents get a wide range of and more hygienic food at one location.