Our Work
Creating a Safe and just Working conditions for all
Street Vendors
Empowering Street Vendors: Strengthening Communities, Ensuring Rights
We are dedicated to working with street vendors and improving their lives through various initiatives. Our focus lies in collectivizing street vendors, providing them with leadership training, advocating for their rights, and offering essential support services. By fostering unity, amplifying their voices, and facilitating access to rights, we strive to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for street vendors.
Collectivizing Street Vendors
We believe in the power of collective action. Through our programs, we bring street vendors together, encouraging collaboration, sharing of experiences, and the formation of supportive networks. By building a strong community, we empower street vendors to address common challenges collectively.
Advocacy
We are passionate about advocating for the rights of street vendors. We engage with policymakers, local authorities, and relevant stakeholders to raise awareness about the importance of street vending in the urban economy. Through strategic advocacy efforts, we work towards creating an enabling environment that recognizes and supports the vital role of street vendors.
Acess to Right
Every street vendor deserves access to their basic rights. We provide guidance and support in navigating bureaucratic processes, obtaining necessary licenses and permits, and accessing social security benefits. We strive to ensure that street vendors are aware of their entitlements and can exercise their rights without barriers.
Support Services
We understand that street vendors often face various challenges in their daily lives. Therefore, we offer a range of support services, including financial literacy training, healthcare assistance, and access to microcredit facilities. We help street vendors overcome obstacles and enhance their economic well-being by addressing their practical needs.
Leadership Training
We recognize the importance of leadership skills for street vendors. Our comprehensive training programs equip them with the necessary knowledge, communication abilities, and advocacy skills to effectively represent themselves and their community. We empower street vendors to take charge of their own destiny and become catalysts for positive change.
Gig Workers
Working from the perspective of social security, rights, entitlements and dignity Janpahal has been working with the platform based gig workers and building an understanding on their working conditions and social security needs through conducting research while engaging stakeholders in the government such as the Ministry of Labour Resources, Govt. of Bihar ,Govt. of National Capital Territory of Delhi and VV Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Labour and Employment,Govt. of India . Securing best for the platform-based gig workers in collaboration with the stakeholders, Janpahal aims to realise the collective vision of G-20 nations.
Janpahal team recently had a meeting with the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and highlighted the hindrances that gig workers are facing and proposed solutions to address these issues.
Labourline
Delhi NCR State Facilitation Centre
India Labourline is a direct response to the need for support for migrant workers and all those working in India's informal sector. The organisation offers assistance with a range of issues, including wage theft, workplace harassment, workplace accident compensation, and access to provident fund and gratuity benefits. The Working Peoples' Coalition (WPC) established the India Labourline (ILL) with the support of the Aajeevika Bureau to provide legal aid and mediation services to workers, particularly migrant workers.
The helpline, which has its headquarters in Mumbai, has been in operation since July 16, 2021. Tele-counsellors are trained to provide the first level of counselling/intervention to workers over the phone before transferring it to the appropriate State Facilitation Centres (SFCs), which are responsible for conducting field-level interventions in legal disputes registered with the Helpline. The helpline also assists workers by connecting them with relevant stakeholders such as the police, labour departments, and so on. When all other forms of mediation or referral have failed, workers are assisted in approaching the courts.
When ILL was founded, it had five operational SFCs spread across Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana. During the first six months, all of these ILL centres performed admirably, resolving approximately one crore of workers' claims. As a result, we recognised the potential of ILL as an idea and the need to reach out to more workers across India who are in despair due to the same issues. We now have 14 full-fledged centres spread across ten Indian states, with five proposed new centres in Tamil Nadu (Chennai), Maharashtra (Nagpur), Uttar Pradesh (Kanpur and Varanasi) and Punjab (Ludhiana).
Work with Warehouse Workers
Working with warehouse workers from the perspective of labour rights, humanity, dignity and occupational safety, Janpahal is engaged in building awareness on the entitlements and schemes and organising training programmes for education on social security, relevant labour laws such as
The Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 1964 No. 36 of 1964, Factories Act 1948, Industrial Safety and Health Act 1972 and the ILO conventions. Training is followed up through support services in updating citizenship and KYC documents in order to enable access to benefits under Employee's State Insurance (ESI) and Provident Fund (PF).
FoSTaC
Empowering Street Food Vendors
Street food vendors can now go through the Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) course offered by FSSAI. This Course creates awareness about food safety standards, helps food vendors create hygienic environments and prevent risks associated with food handling. All this is done by inculcating good food safety practices and bringing about a behavioral change.
Street food vendors must go through a 4 hour training course, every 2 years to be certified under this certification. Janpahal is a training partner for FoSTaC. We help street food vendors enroll in the course online. We also provide space where they can undergo the 4 hour course online.
Based on the size and setup of the food organization, they can select the type of course they want to undergo. There are 4 levels of courses with 17 courses being offered altogether.
Courses are based on the type of food product being handled. For example, there are courses that are being offered for dairy and dairy product handling.
FoSTac
work with Association of Healthcare Workers and Technicians (ACT)
Janpahal has been organizing healthcare workers and technicians from the perspective of labour rights, social security and organising awareness programmes on the labour laws, workers’ rights and entitlements. Additionally, Janpahal has engaged in advocacy for the realisation of rights of the health care technicians through organising seminars and conferences and evidence-based research. Janpahal has been also been assisting them in accessing ESI and PF benefits when needed and addressing work-related issues.
Work on Early Child Care
Janpahal has been partner of ‘Neevn Delhi Forces’ which is a campaign started by 45 NGOs in Delhi that are working for children’s rights, especially children below 6 years of age. In partnership, we are engaged in advocacy work to ensure policy level change. Currently, Janpahal is advocating to deliver comprehensive childcare through a government funded day care system. Keeping this goal in mind, Janpahal is conducting awareness camps amongst the working women and young mothers, encouraging them to demand the same in their community. Janpahal is facilitating women to voice their concerns regarding lack of childcare services to the elected members of their area.
Work for Children’s Health & Education
Janpahal partners with the national campaign called ‘Nine is mine’ for making the government accountable in terms of appropriate budgetary allocation for children. This is a campaign for the children, of the children and by the children which is facilitated by the network of organizations from across India in order to eliminate budgetary deficits in the critical sectors of health and education. The campaign demands allocative justice with a total of 9% of the GDP towards child development
Work with hawkers Joint Action Committee
For long Janpahal has been intensively engaged to uphold retail democracy. Janpahal has formed market-based groups of street vendor and built their leadership capacity to have a “life with dignity and peace”. Janpahal has been training street vendor to use legal frame work for protection of their livelihood and succeeded in collectivizing thousands of street vendors through building their leadership at grassroots level. Street vendors leaders are trained in relevant acts, rules and schemes. Leadership trainings also focus on building and sharpening their skills of collective co-existence. A dedicated team of Janpahal facilitates street vendors interface with authorities.
Janpahal is intensely working with women on gender justice and has successfully built a network of community-based women leaders. Janpahal has been an active partner of various community-based campaigns on gender justice. Janpahal also formed a women’s front of women street vendors which exclusively voices concern of women street vendors. JANPAHAL MAHILA PANCHAYAT since November 2017 has created a special identity in the area of Shakarpur police station by successfully mediating hundreds of domestic violence cases. If necessary, cases are referred to the Delhi police.
Work with Women for Justice
Humanitarian response of Janpahal include ration distribution, worker’s kitchen and rescue
operation. Dry ration was distributed during the pandemic and its distribution among the
flood victims takes place virtually on annual basis. Having its headquarters location on the
Yamuna bank, Janpahal leverages this proximity for working with the flood victims with the
help of the donors. Worker’s kitchen during the pandemic were run during the pandemic forsupporting the large number of migrant workers who were stranded in Delhi post lockdown declaration by Govt. of India. Besides, Janpahal has been conducting the rescue operation for the homeless in Delhi which attracts a large number of migrant workers from all over India through the year. During winter season special through the night in the catchment area of the shelters that are allotted for its management by DUSIB.
work with Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), Govt of NCT of Delhi
Janpahal in partnership with DUSIB manages many shelters for homeless. We work with
homeless to link them with government programme and provisions. We run campaign like
“Hygiene 4 Home- less” to aware them on health and hygiene issues. There are separate
shelters for men, women and families. Other than operating these shelters, Janpahal
organizes many awareness camps at these shelters which include HIV AIDS awareness,
AADHAR card updating and E-Shram registration.