Hustle in the Sidewalk: Triangular Contestations Between Hawkers, Walkers, and Coppers in the Kathmandu Valley

Abstract

Sidewalks in the Kathmandu Valley are punctuated with vendors busy selling their merchandise to the pedestrians. Notwithstanding that street vending provides thriving opportunities for earning to the lower class, it takes a heavy toll on their health due to the relentless inhale of pernicious air. Disinterested pedestrians feel their spaces being thronged and contested by the vendors and their customers who generally take more time to make a deal through bargaining. The city police, on the other hand, treat the vendors, in many places and occasions, as the “wretched of the earth” in their routine patrols. The resistance of the vendors is complex and dynamic, and entails layered responses varying from symbolic, talking violence of the pedestrians to the batons of city police. Through interviews and observation, this research aims to shed light on the vendor negotiations, and resistance strategies vis-à-vis pedestrians, and the city police.