Like ants swarming sugar, street vendors go where the crowds are.

Many have been occupying pedestrian roads for years disrupting traffic flow. Others can be seen selling items around traffic lights, congested toll roads, pedestrian bridges and other public spaces.

Governor Jokowi '€œJoko'€ Widodo and Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahja Purnama have reiterated that they were both committed to upholding the 2007 Bylaw on public order.

'€œWe will provide relocations that accommodate street vendors,'€ Jokowi said on Monday.

Article 25 of the 2007 Bylaw on public order states that the governor is in charge of designating areas that can be used by street vendors. The article further stipulates that street vendors are prohibited from doing business outside the designated areas.

Ahok said the relocations would target vendors doing business on gridlock-prone streets. He also said the city was also looking for more public spaces that could be used by street vendors.

'€œWe should provide locations that are near crowds, such as at parks adjacent to streets,'€ he said
on Tuesday.

Previously, the city provided space for street vendors in the recently built Pluit Reservoir Park in Penjaringan, Pluit, North Jakarta.

The recent relocation of street vendors in Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta to the nearby Block G building was only the beginning of a series of relocation programs in the capital.

On Monday, East Jakarta Mayor Krisdianto relocated 212 street vendors from Gembrong toy market in East Jakarta to city owned markets in Klender, Sunan Giri and Basuki Rahmat.

South Jakarta municipality is now working on the relocation of street vendors in Pasar Minggu. Smoother traffic could be seen in the area over the past weeks as the streets were being guarded by public order officials.

The city also plans to relocate street vendors in Kebayoran Lama in South Jakarta and Roxy Mas shopping center in West Jakarta.

The relocations, however, have been met with challenges. After several street vendors in Pasar Minggu reportedly failed to attract customers at their new location, they tried returning to the streets.

Although the illegal kiosks in front of the Textile Museum on Jl. K.S Tubun in West Jakarta were demolished some weeks ago, some shoe vendors returned to the site at night.

Indonesia Street Vendor Association Jakarta branch head Hoiza Siregar said many members had opted to ignore the bylaw because they needed to make ends meet within a day.

'€œStreet vendors have a simple way of thinking. They need to make little profits every day because they have small capital. They don'€™t bother thinking about whether or not they are breaching the Bylaw,'€ she told The Jakarta Post over the phone recently.

She said street vendors generally took a small profit margin of up to 20 percent as they tried to offer competitive prices to customers. The association has 32,783 members but Hoiza estimated that there were 150,000 street vendors in the city with an estimated turnover of around Rp 225 billion (US$20.1 million) per day.

'€œThese street vendors are generally the backbone of their families. They usually become a street vendor after being laid off or evicted,'€ Hoiza said.

Ahok said the city acknowledged the street vendors'€™ contribution to the economy.

'€œI don'€™t know the exact figures, but these small and medium enterprises have become our economy'€™s backbone,'€ he said.

Hoiza said city officials should continuously supervise areas prone to illegal occupation by vendors instead of imposing illegal levies on them.

'€œThere is no way the street vendors would dare stay in one place for years without the knowledge of officials,'€ she said.

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