Hawkers have taken over every square inch of space on roadsides but municipality and police officials, representatives of associations for the disabled take money under the counter for the privilege. An investigation.
People pay between 3,000 (47 USD) and 26,000 Afs (424 Afs) a month for a spot on the street. Killid interviewed officials in the municipality, police and union of disabled, and they all denied demanding money. This begs the question: how come hawkers are permitted to set shop on the pavements and spill onto roads?
Kabul’s traffic chaos is partly because of the unregularised wheelbarrows-turned-stalls and carts occupying the roads.
For hawkers, their work is a source of livelihood in a country where joblessness is a widespread problem. They admit to bribing officials, but most of those interviewed did not want to be identified for fear of harassment.
Mohammad Reza (name changed) sells rhubarb in the 5th District out of a wheelbarrow. He says every district head takes a cut from hawkers. “I have to pay 20 Afs (33 US cents) per day… If we don’t pay the money we are not allowed to work here,” he explains.
A hawker in Kota-e Sangi says he pays 150 Afs (2.5 USD) daily – an unofficial toll – to the police. “The policeman comes and collect per day some 150 Afs from every wheelbarrow that is parked within a crowded market, and those outside have to pay 100 Afs (1.7 USD).”
Shopkeeper Ali Ahmad in the same area who considers the hawkers in front of his shop a nuisance obstructing the way of customers, says “hawkers pay 150 Afs daily to (a) district commander”. According to him, the rate of the bribe is decided by whoever the current commander may be. “Earlier, they (commanders) would get 50 Afs per day (82 cents), now they take 150 Afs,” he says. Officials in the municipality and district work in tandem, he believes.
Gul Rahim Safi, the head of security in the 1st District, dismisses the charge that police are involved in taking a “toll”. “The police is making security arrangements and clearing the locations (of obstructions like street sellers),” he says. He calls hawking a problem for the police for which a solution must be found.
Mir Hasan Nasrat, who heads security in the 3rd District, throws a challenge when asked what he thought of the allegations against the police. He says he would take the complaints seriously if even one person found taking a bribe is handed over to the law.
Juma Gul Hamdard and Esmatullah Akbari, the heads of 5th and 11th districts respectively also dismiss the charges. Meanwhile, Khair Mohammad Safdari, the head of markets’ management in Kabul Municipality, says municipality and district officials are not involved but the police and members of the disabled people’s union are. “Part of the money that is being taken from hawkers goes to police pockets and part of it to disabled union,” he says. “This is not a secret!” he adds.
Corruption charges
There are allegations of corruption against officials in the associations for the disabled. Hawkers and government officials say the disabled were allotted places on public land, and it was for the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to prevent people from having to give bribes.
It is hard to estimate the number of small stalls and wheelbarrow shops across the capital city. Officials in the Kabul Municipality say they have given space to 2,211 disabled persons in 17 districts. In the 12th District, 1,260 booths and wheelbarrows are owned by the disabled who rent it out for between 600 to 900 Afs (10 and 15 USD).
A hawker in the 2nd District who sells plastic items on a cloth spread on the ground says, “Disabled themselves are chowkidars (guards). They come in the evening every day to collect a so-called rent from us. They get 130 Afs (2 USD) per day from each wheelbarrow and 10,000 Afs (163 USD) from each tent (some are makeshift shops and others restaurants).”
According to the same hawker, all the tents and wheelbarrows between Pul Bagh Omomi and Chawk (both in central Kabul) belong to disabled owners. They extract a price from hawkers not just for the rent on the location, but also for other services like cleaning and guarding the place.
Hasibullah sells mobile phones in the 2nd District. “The booth that I work in belongs to a disabled (person). I pay some 8,000 Afs (130 USD) as rent plus 50 Afs per night (to him) for guarding the place,” he tells Killid.
A fruit seller in the Feroshgah area says, “These disabled have a union. If we complain against one, they won’t let us work here.” He says he has to pay some 26,000 Afs to the disabled owner for the booth he sells fruits in. “That apart, we pay 100 Afs daily for guarding and 20 Afs for cleaning.”
Tamim (name changed) is exasperated that he has to pay a disabled person 5,000 Afs (82 USD) to put a takhat (wooden platform) on the side of the road. “We used to pay 4,000 Afs (65 USD),” he says, “but there is no one to ask why the disabled get the money or if the land is theirs or government land?”
General Asadullah, the head of Kabul traffic, admits hawking is a traffic hazard. He says they have acted to clean the area of hawkers but Parliament has put up obstacles. “We kept the area clean for two years but the disabled complained to parliament and MPs (members) told us not to put restrictions on their earnings until an alternative place or work is given to them.”
Fakoori Beheshti, a member of the parliamentary commission for the disabled and martyrs blames the municipality and traffic police for the chaos, and not the disabled.
Sardar is a member of disabled union in Kabul called the Union of Sadaqat (loyalty) and Heir of Martyrs working in the Feroshgah area. He says they have forcibly occupied areas in Kabul to earn a livelihood because there is not enough jobs for the disabled. “We used to work here. Then the government took the land back from us four years back, promising to set up a market for us but that did not happen and we have usurped the land for our offspring,” he says.
According to Sardar, only a small number of disabled people behave like owners of the footpaths and collect “rent” from hawkers; the majority are in dire straits. Killid tried to meet with officials from the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Disabled and Martyrs but no one responded.
Powerful patrons
Some government officials, off the record, say the disabled have support from “invisible quarters in the government to be able to take over public land. Saifudin Nezami, the head of CCD, a non-governmental organisation working for the disabled, has similar views. “Government officials are involved in most such cases,” he says. “When a disabled person usurps land and the government is silent, there is a doubt that things are not quite what they seem,” he says. In his opinion, the usurpation of public land is lucrative also for the disabled. The numbers of unions representing them have jumped from one a few years ago to more than 130. The Ministry of Justice says 49 have legal recognition under a 2003 law.
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