Gulistan, a commercial hub in the capital, houses several markets. Its footpaths and main roads have nonetheless remained under the grip of hawkers for many years. Repeated eviction drives have failed to clear them. Urban planners attribute this failure to a single root cause: megacity Dhaka still lacks an effective hawker policy. Eviction thus becomes a stopgap, while the syndicates that control the hawkers persist unseen.

The two city corporations recently resumed eviction drives in Gulistan and other key parts of Dhaka. Planners caution that indiscriminate eviction without proper planning has never worked before and is unlikely to work now. They argue that hawkers must be acknowledged as part of the urban economy and managed through a defined framework. An effective policy, they say, is now urgent.

Stakeholders insist that those who permit hawkers to operate — notably the linemen, administrative officials and city corporation staff who share in the extortion proceeds — must first be identified and prosecuted. Yet no government has moved to dismantle this syndicate. The blow descends instead on the hawkers themselves. The city’s low-income residents bear the heaviest cost.

Dr Adil Mohammed Khan, executive director of the Institute of Planning and Development, rejects the logic of these recurrent crackdowns. “Every time they’re evicted, the hawkers simply return. What’s the point then? Each drive costs the state a considerable sum. Over the past twenty years, the government has mounted countless drives and spent heavily, yet achieved nothing concrete.”

He insists the real target must be those who control the trade. “The linemen, the administration, city corporation officials and staff, the market owners — they collude to allow hawkers onto the streets. They collect daily and monthly payments. Has the government ever arrested a single lineman and made an example of them? Has there been any inquiry into the money that flows into the pockets of police, sub-inspectors, officers in charge and city corporation staff? Does any list of these people exist? It’s the easiest thing in the world. Everyone knows who extracts the cash. Everyone knows whose pockets it fills. Yet we keep evicting the hawkers instead of their enablers. That leads to nowhere.”

Analysts contend these repeated evictions mainly wound the city’s poor. For low-income Dhaka residents, they argue, the hawkers constitute the primary marketplace. Branded shops and supermarkets lie beyond their means. Most vendors themselves are impoverished traders, unable to afford monthly rent on a formal stall. Livelihood compulsion brings them to the capital. The state, experts say, cannot simply cast them aside.

Near Gulistan’s Sundarban Square Market, Md Asif Hossain sells shirts and tshirts. The young small trader inherited his pitch from his father, who worked that same spot for two decades. Since the eviction on April 9, Asif’s business has been shuttered. He describes the grim cycle: “Every few months, government officials arrive and threaten to clear us out. The linemen then step in and demand a lump sum, separate from the regular payments. That’s how we survive. When the eviction comes, we bear the loss. A few days later, to restart trading, we pay another lump sum. The state has never once identified or punished the people who take that money and let us stand here.”

Since taking office, the current government has moved to restore order on the roads and ease congestion. City corporation administrators have also pledged to reclaim the footpaths. The twin city bodies of Dhaka nonetheless deferred eviction drives through Ramadan and Eid. Enforcement tightened across the capital from the start of April. Complaints surfaced immediately that hawkers had returned to some cleared sites. In several cases, footpaths stood empty for only a few hours before vendors reappeared. Reports now indicate a gradual drift back into Gulistan, Lokkhi Bazar, Paltan, New Market, Shonir Akhra, Rayer Bazar, Panthapath, Green Road, Elephant Road, Mirpur and Mohakhali.

New Market hawker Alauddin added: “During Ramadan, we heard repeatedly that trading would be barred after Eid. They evicted us on that basis. But we’re already told that everything will settle in a week or so. Pay something and we can open again.”

Urbanists note that two decades of footpath and roadway encroachment by hawkers have sharpened the city’s distress. In the busiest areas like Gulistan, New Market and the Mirpur‑10 roundabout, vendors used to occupy four lanes of the main road, paralysing traffic. Past evictions have held for barely a day or two. Conversations with hawkers on the ground suggest little has changed this time.

Hawkers are stakeholders in the urban economy and a feature of city life, argues Md Ashraful Islam, chief town planner at Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha. “Developed countries have hawkers too. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand — street food and vendors exist everywhere. Their presence brings distinct advantages. Where hawkers operate, evening security poses far less of a problem.” He therefore rejects the notion of a vendor-free capital. “Planning doesn’t call for eradication. It calls for designation: which area, which road can host how many hawkers. We must decide when they trade, on which days, and how licences or identity cards are issued.”

Ashraful Islam is unequivocal about the limits. “Vendors can’t be allowed to seize four lanes of a main road and choke traffic. Nor can they block the pedestrian right-of-way on the footpath. If they do, people spill onto the roads and congestion worsens.”

The real work, he said, lies in identification and selection. “We must find the genuine hawkers, weigh their claims and create a biometric database. Once a policy exists, you could say Gulistan has five thousand hawkers. An impartial process would then select five hundred to be given space. All this requires a hawker policy.”

Hawkers Union president Abul Hashem rejects the notion that vendors are simply obstructing order. He accuses the authorities of harassment dressed up as eviction. “If the state gave us employment, we would leave the hawker trade,” he told Bonik Barta. “Mills and factories are shutting down. Unemployment has surged under the Middle East conflict. We’re scratching a living. The government must help us. We want to trade lawfully. We want to operate with city corporation approval and pay them rent.”

He draws a firm line, however. “We don’t speak for those who set up shop on the roadway. Nor do we support those who occupy the footpath and inconvenience pedestrians. We simply want a policy framework. Our demand is that genuine hawkers be rehabilitated. If this demand goes unmet, we’ll call for a movement.”

Past attempts at rehabilitation have consumed billions of taka yet yielded little benefit for vendors. Complaints persist that allottees sell their assigned shops and return to the street with a van.

“It’s true that hawkers return after every eviction,” Md Zahirul Islam, chief executive officer of Dhaka South City Corporation, told Bonik Barta. “For this drive to succeed, we need political will. We still lack a hawker policy. We’ll sit with the relevant parties. We’ll talk.” He added that the city corporation cannot resolve the hawker problem alone; a coordinated initiative is essential.