ABSTRACT
Street vendors are a critical part of urban informal economies, ensuring accessible goods and services while sustaining millions of livelihoods across emerging cities. However, the rise of smart city governance and digital surveillance technologies, such as CCTV networks, facial recognition systems, predictive policing, and GIS based vending zone regulation has reshaped the everyday negotiations of visibility for informal workers in public spaces. While surveillance is often justified through narratives of urban order, security, and sanitation, it frequently results in punitive regulation, displacement, heightened harassment, and data-driven exclusion of vendors who lack legal recognition or formal documentation. This abstract explores how visibility functions as both a necessity and a threat for street vendors: visibility enables livelihood through proximity to customers, but also exposes them to eviction, fines, and confiscation under restrictive municipal laws. The analysis draws upon the “Right to the City” framework and critical surveillance studies to examine whether existing legal protections, such as the Street Vendors Act in India, adequately safeguard vendors against algorithmic and physical surveillance pressures. The study argues for a shift toward participatory and rights-based urban governance, where surveillance tools enhance safety and accessibility rather than reproduce informality-based discrimination. Ensuring that street vendors are not criminalized for occupying public space is vital for building inclusive, just, and democratically governed cities.
Key words; Street Vendor’s rights, Urban Surveillance, Informal Economy, Right to City, Algorithmic Governance.
Introduction
Surveillance in urban spaces refers to the systematic monitoring, observation, and regulation of individuals and activities within cities by state authorities and, increasingly, private actors. Traditionally associated with policing and law enforcement, urban surveillance today encompasses a wide range of practices aimed at maintaining public order, managing populations, and governing urban life.
In cities, surveillance operates not merely as a security mechanism but as a tool of governance. It determines how public spaces are used, who may occupy them, and under what conditions. Urban surveillance thus plays a crucial role in shaping access to streets, markets, and livelihoods, particularly for populations operating in the informal economy, such as street vendors.