Urban Livelihoods At The Crossroads: Assessing The Challenges And Opportunities Of Street Vendors In Chennai City

Abstract

This study evaluates the operational challenges, economic viability, and institutional opportunities of street vendors across the urban landscape of Chennai City, Tamil Nadu. While street vending serves as an indispensable pillar of the informal economy by generating self-employment and offering low-cost goods to urban consumers, vendors face structural vulnerabilities including eviction threats, informal extortion, regulatory ambiguity, and limited access to formal credit. Utilizing a stratified random sampling framework, primary data was gathered from 400 street vendors across key municipal zones of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). The empirical framework applies a robust four-stage statistical testing architecture: the Chi-Square Test of Independence, Independent Samples $t$-test, One-Way ANOVA, and Multiple Linear Regression. The empirical results reveal significant disparities in vendor income and regulatory compliance, driven primarily by vending zone designation, gender, social category, and access to institutional credit, such as the PM SVANidhi scheme. The paper concludes with targeted policy recommendations aimed at transitioning from punitive regulation to an inclusive, rights-based urban governance framework under the Street Vendors Act.