Panel Report: Urban Governance and Labour – Informal Economies, Workers and the City

Event: Urban Action School

Date: 24 March 2026

Panel Topic: Urban Governance and Labour: Informal Economies, Workers and the City

Featured Speaker: Saktiman Ghosh, General Secretary & National Coordinator, National Hawker Federation

Key Discussions and Findings:

1. Structural Exclusion: The panel examined how informal workers, particularly street vendors, are systematically excluded from formal city planning processes. This exclusion leads to everyday precarity for workers in urban informal economies.
2. Re-framing Hawkers: Saktiman Ghosh argued that hawkers should not be viewed as encroachers or nuisances. Instead, he positioned them as essential actors within urban economies whose rights must be legally and socially recognised.
3. Call for Participatory Governance: Ghosh called for a shift towards participatory governance models that actively integrate informal labour into urban policy-making, asserting that this integration is vital for achieving just urban futures.
4. Conclusion – Urban Democracy: The panel concluded that genuine urban democracy cannot exist without securing both the livelihoods and the dignity of all workers, including those in the informal sector.

Final Reaffirmation: The panel affirmed that any vision of a just and democratic city must prioritise the inclusion, protection, and empowerment of informal workers.