Take back the streets | Citizens in Indian cities don’t want to shrink to the peripheries

Hawkers are being removed from streets across India. This can be counterproductive on many fronts. “With activities [like hawkers], there’s vigilance that is not [related to] police presence,” explains Vidya Tongbram, an architect from New Delhi, who worked on the Chandni Chowk redevelopment project. “It actually makes the environment safer rather than having a sterile space.” In the search for clean aesthetics, infrastructure development in India is stripping cities of their unique identities, and their masses. “The way we design these modern, monstrous cities… is clearly drawn through lines of who belongs and who doesn’t,” says journalist and writer Sameera Khan. “The marginalised and working class are kept away from them.”