The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has begun issuing QR code-enabled licences to authorised hawkers across Mumbai in a major step towards digitising the city’s street vending system. The initiative comes amid growing pressure from the Bombay High Court (HC) over the increasing number of illegal hawkers operating in the city.
The newly introduced licences feature a QR code that can be scanned to instantly verify details such as the hawker’s name, designated vending location, and the type of goods permitted for sale. Civic officials believe the system will help authorities and citizens easily identify authorised vendors and curb unauthorised street vending.
The move follows recent observations by the high court, which criticised the BMC for failing to effectively control illegal hawking despite repeated directives over the years. During a hearing held on May 5, the court recommended the introduction of a QR code-based identification system to clearly distinguish licensed hawkers from illegal vendors.
In response, the BMC has started distributing QR-enabled licences to existing authorised stall owners and is now preparing to extend the system to all hawkers identified in the 2014 hawker survey.
However, implementing the project within the five-week deadline set by the high court is expected to be a significant administrative challenge. According to civic officials, while the 2014 survey recorded nearly 99,435 hawkers, the corporation currently has verified records for only around 32,000 licensed or eligible vendors. This means a large-scale verification exercise will be required before fresh identity cards can be issued.
Officials involved in the process said the first step will be to verify old records to determine which hawkers remain eligible, whether those surveyed in 2014 are still active, and whether any records need updating. Once the verification process is completed, the civic body plans to issue QR-based identity cards in phases.
The BMC had initially requested two months to complete the exercise, but the timeline was later reduced to five weeks following discussions in court. Civic authorities are now working to speed up verification and registration procedures to meet the deadline while ensuring only eligible hawkers receive the new digital licences.