Jeevika

Street vending is a low cost enterprise and a primary source of livelihood for roughly 2.5% of India’s population. Along with being a source of employment for the urban poor, vending plays a central role in urban life—it supplies affordable and essential goods to the public. Unfortunately, the economic, social and property rights of such workers are often at risk of abuse due to lack of legal awareness and availability of a platform to raise grievances and ensure timely redressal.

Centre for Civil Society’s latest initiative proposes to tackle this challenge through a comprehensive mobile application—Jeevika, a one-stop for street vendors to access free legal aid. With its simple user interface and one-click access, the application will: (i) create an SOS platform for street vendors to connect them instantly to local leaders, street vendor associations and/or legal volunteers (ii) become an online repository of legal information that can be used for legal awareness and education of street vendors on their rights; (iii) enable street vendors to digitally store their essential documents like Certificate of Vending (CoV); and (iv) connect to local leaders and co-vendors in case of harassment instances.
Jeevika, is an award winning effort aimed to promote individual livelihood freedom for street vendors and has also played a pivotal role to advocate for street vendors rights. The Jeevika mobile application is part of our larger initiative on removing barriers to livelihood and doing business for the urban poor and marginal communities. The app aims to empower vendors to fight against harassment and eventually help improve the prosperity, freedom, and dignity of street vendors in India.