Identifying Informal Markets for Sustainable Urbanization: Developing Sustainability Index for Informal Economy

The growth and development of cities are measured by the infrastructure it provides to its people. India is focusing on smart development of cities. Informal markets and street vendors are biggest problem in any city. They occupy public space made for pedestrians or vehicles, they create solid waste management issues and sometime they are affecting health of people. Even with these problems, some markets are operating in city for decades. The reason of their existence is that they serve some purposes which have greater value for people than the problems of street vending and informal markets. The present research is based on the survey of 90 street vendors of different informal markets. The sample has been taken from five different cities of Uttar Pradesh. Different characteristics of informal markets were observed and an index has been developed to identify those informal markets which need to be developed for overall development of city.