Encroachment is Inevitable: It’s high time we

accommodate it in our street designs

<Insert Image 1: A wide enough Indian Street leaving minimum Right of Way, Image Courtesy:

Raised eyebrows, grumpy faces and murmuring lips, is a common reaction towards tumultuous
streets in India, but let’s acknowledge it, they are a definite part of the urban fabric of Indian
cities. So, instead of condemning it, how can we comprehend and accommodate it in the urban
design and planning of the cityscape?

So what consists of Encroachment?

Encroachment is defined as “anything which advances beyond the limits” and with the context of
Indian streets, it goes to a point where they tend to be mutinous and seem to be uncontainable, but
the reality of the other side is a downright contrast.

After the late 90’s encroachment has turned obnoxious with inadequate parking and street vending,
as they stopped equipping in appropriate ways into the urban framework of a city.
In India, encroachment encompasses majorly around congestion due to haphazard parking and
organic progression of street vendors, while parking is generally associated with the higher-income
groups and commercial sector, the later plays an important role in the social structure and economic
structure of Indian cities. Certainly street vending is the only source of income for the large
proportion of urban poor, and plays a huge role in our informal economy, as they are critical to the
civic structure and cannot be overlooked upon.

Often this facet of the cityscape is associated with concerns like noise, congestion, hygiene issues
and obstruction in pedestrian and vehicular flow, and the lack of identity in the planning and urban
design of the urban framework. This hassle leads to a fairly negative perception of the collective
‘encroachment’ and discourages to accept their presence in the armature of a typical Indian city.

The parking inadequacies and lack of allocated vending zones in the high streets and urban nodes in
a city lead to a violation of public spaces and increased pressure on infrastructure, thus ultimately
defying the right of Public Space for citizens.

In India’s context, the rudimentary approach of public spaces has been restricted to parks and roads.
And with growing urbanisation, the need for aesthetically appealing streets has been highlighted and
‘encroachment’ seems to be the biggest hurdle in achieving the standardised version of streets.

Reasons

The reason of encroachment is not distinctive to one precise aspect and varies according to the
backgrounds of the cities, although it would be easy to circle around the planning policies and
government legislations for their unsystematic existence.

However, the dearth of innovative ideas in micro level designing of the interfaces of the public and
private framework of a city leads to the gaps, which ultimately turn into ‘encroachment’. Such gaps
are quite evident in typical Indian streets, be it primary, secondary or tertiary. Thereupon, pointing
fingers at the urban planners and designers and their inadequacies to ingeniously deal with growing
encroachment would also be appropriate.

Street Vendors as the

Street Vending consumes most of the area on streets and leaves no scope for pedestrian comfort,
vehicular safety and ultimately leading to the commotion, but force removal of the street vendors
should never be presumed as a most suitable solution to this disorder. So, before jumping to the
removal of street vendors to beautify streets, let’s acknowledge what they have to offer to the city
and how other factors are equally responsible for the overall madness in any active street in India.

 As far as Public space quality is concerned, they provide the best Active Engagement.
 They are crucial for adding vibrancy in the urban fabric of the city.
 It is the main source of income for many urban poor.
 Provision of basic goods at convenient locations.
 In a country with a maximum population as a middle, or lower middle class, they help
provide affordable goods.
<Insert Image 3: Street Vending as the Source of Income for many old & poor, Image courtesy:

Government’s Role & Mediation by Non-profit organisations

There’s no uncertainty that govt. policies and legislation create a lot of difference between the vision
of urban planners and designers and their execution, as the policies should target a holistic
approach. Ultimately, it becomes difficult to cater to all the prerequisites of the citizens of a city and
their issues.

But in India, the legislative policies are inconsiderate to lives associated and seek complete
elimination of street vendors; this tendency has led to various non-profit organisations to originate.
They mediate through the process of achieving the indefinite objectives involved and prepare
extensive research & surveys of street vending and the communities involved, thus, help provide
them with legal safeguards to practice street vending. SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) is
one such organisation which helped reduce the challenges faced by street vendors and the
streetscape in Ahmedabad.

Street Vending policies be at variance in different cities, but they have common grounds to have
strict arrangements of the following:

 Restriction-free Street Vending Zones

 Time Restricted Zones
 No Vending Zones
Picture 3

The community-based organisations have made the leap comparatively easier for street vending,
which otherwise is a complicated process in conventional city models. Around 2.5% population of
India earn their livelihoods from street vending, and disorganisation of this fraction is affecting the
economy. For the economic, social and communal safety, many cities are coming up with models
that consolidate various stakeholders and jointly share the gains.

One such instance can be appreciated from the case of Bhubaneswar, Orissa where the various
public, private and community organisations came up with joint initiatives to for a mutually
benefitting model for street vendors. The city now has 52 vending zones and has higher levels of
organised working with the proper infrastructure required.

If such model markets are replicated, they could benefit the vendors and their families in creating a
secure livelihood for them with increased levels of sensible functionality of a city.

Recommendations as an Urban Designer:

It would be unfair to completely rely on government and public/private organisations to take charge
of creating better streets and organised levels of ‘encroachment’. As, alone the policies and
legislations cannot work on micro level designing and spatial contexts, therefore as an Urban
Designer, frequent micro level propositions can be applied to ensure recognisable changes in the
macro level.

Comprehending the conditions of encroachment and the public engagement, a design approach
should be loose enough to let them permeate in the urban fabric. However, it is justified that one
standard model wouldn’t fit in varying contexts, but there are some fundamental suggestions,
designers and planners can follow.

 Inclusion of the Urban infrastructure as the base layer in the design process
  Making Right of Way as their primary objective
 Micro-level designing on important interfaces of public and private infrastructure
 Ensuring the vitality of Public Spaces
 Time restricted Parking and street vending according to traffic flows
 Controlled organic behaviour to an extent
 Insurance of pedestrian and vehicular safety
 Parking management and designing streets with appropriate parking capacities.

One such general Proposition is explained in the diagram below, where the street vendors and
parking are not intermixed with pedestrian accesses and vehicular flow. The proposition provides
active engagement on both sides of the pedestrian access and the model below would need a lot of
customisation according to the context and situations.

Picture 4

Any social issue if perceived from a collective approach leads to ground-breaking solutions and in the
case of designing Indian streets, the proposed solutions as an urban designer have the potential to
deliver a new dimension to deal with ‘encroachment’.

It may not be the most comprehensive solution to the issues faced due to organic vending &
haphazard parking but it definitely brings us one step closer to acknowledging their existence and
familiarising it with designing of Indian streets.

I hope now ‘encroachment’ is viewed with a fresh lens!

REFERENCES:

Picture 1: Photo by Arihant Daga on Unsplash

Picture 2: Photo by Atharva Tulsi on Unsplash

Picture 3:

Picture 4: Proposition diagram by author