Road side vending is often liked by many people because of the taste of foods served, their cost and open environment. But a major criticism against street foods or road side vending is the inadequate hygiene, unsatisfactory sanitary environment and indifferent quality and quantity of water available, making the foods some what unsafe on many occasions. Added to this, in countries like India where roads are never cleaned the polluted environment poses another threat to the health of the patrons who frequent such places. With basic facilities for hand washing, public toilets and other essential ingredients of an eatery absent, street foods can pose serious threat to the population in the long run. Many efforts in the past to institutionalize the street food vending system with a view to protect the livelihood of the entrepreneurs and modernize the food preparations and serving methods have not made any lasting impact on this micro enterprise sector in any meaningful way. Here is the story of such an effort in the city of Chandigarh which makes a sad reading!
"Launched with much fanfare by municipal corporation after taking inspiration from Lahore, the night-food street of Chandigarh has lost its sheen as majority of families prefer not to visit the place. Since most people going there have to wait for food, they prefer sitting inside their vehicles. They end up consuming liquor and smoking openly. Plenty of brawls and incidents of eve-teasing have also been reported from the area during night. All that has almost made the city lose. The taste for reasonably priced, hygienic food that the street was originally provided has also skyrocketed as compared to the beginning and even basic facilities are not available nearby".
Why not India learn a lesson from the Food Truck phenomenon in the US where there are thousands of mobile catering units, working successfully in different urban areas meeting the food needs of millions of people without any major complaints. Of course a truck can be expensive to procure but it has better mobility and more space for installing a functional kitchen with all mandatory requirements for a modern eatery. Some efforts in the past by well meaning people to put in efforts to modernize the push cart mode of food vending have not yielded the desired result. The food court model where vendors are provided with minimum facilities for cooking and serving are working satisfactorily in many Asian countries under the vigilance of local municipal health authorities but why the Chandigarh experiment is facing the problems as reported, must be critically examined. If the problems are successfully addressed, it can go a long way in benefiting the whole country through establishment of centralized food courts in hundreds of towns and cities where there are unorganized road side vendors doing brisk business under unsatisfactory conditions.
V.H.POTTYhttp://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
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