| Street Food |
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| Upgradation of the Quality of Street Food |
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| BACKGROUND:- |
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| Street Food not only is palatable, inexpensive and convenient but also is a large source of employment generation; major beneficiaries being women and the urban poor. Further, Street food is a treasure house of local culinary traditions and is increasingly playing an important role as an enhancer and force multiplier of tourism sector all over the world. The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors suggest that almost 2% of the urban population consists of street vendors, of which a significant proportion consists of street food vendors. Food vending activity on the streets pertains to the unorganized sector of the economy. However, the main concern involved is the quality of food that is served. At times, it is not adequately hygienic and totally safe for human consumption, having adverse effect on public health. On the other hand, the issues of vendors’ identity, their economic sustainability & health conditions etc. are also the areas of concern. When the Food Safety and Standards Bill (now Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006) was being discussed in the Parliament, a commitment was made that the Ministry of Food Processing Industries would take care of the concern of the hawkers and street food vendors, as they have been kept out of the purview of the licensing provisions of the Act. Accordingly, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries is taking initiatives on a Private-Public-Partnership mode to ensure that the hygiene & quality of food that is consumed in the streets is not compromised. At the same time it is essential to see that the concerns associated with the street food vendors are also addressed. In order to ensure economic sustainability and betterment of the livelihood of street food vendors on the one hand and to ensure safe & hygienic food to the consumers on the other, the Ministry has formulated the Scheme of “Upgradation of Quality of Street Food”. It has two components- |
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- Safe Food Towns
- Upgradation/ Establishment of Food-Street in cities of tourist importance
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| (A) Safe Food Towns:- |
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| The palatability, affordability and easy accessibility of the street food make it highly popular in all the income-groups of the society. Its demand needs no testimony. With the increasing influx of youth to the cities, increased participation of women in the work force and the present lifestyle has made more and more people dependent upon the street food. It meets the food requirements of a large section of the society; primary consumers being low-income group people, office-goers, women and children. But as it suffers from certain safety & hygiene issues as well as the bad economic conditions of the vendors as stated above, those issues are required to be addressed. To address the issues of providing an identity to the street food vendors, their economic sustainability and betterment in their livelihood as well as providing for social security cover to them in the form of health insurance, life insurance for accidental death/ dismemberment/ permanent disability and also insurance for the cart/ kiosk of the street food vendors, and simultaneously upgrading the quality of food served on the streets, the first component of Safe Food Towns has been proposed to be implemented in 50 cities all over the country covering a total of 50,000 street food vendors. Since, the enormity of this task is gigantic; the prevailing conditions at the ground level are required to be assessed. |
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| OBJECTIVES:- |
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| The objectives of this component are to address the following:- |
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- Provide an identity to the downtrodden street food vendors in the unorganized sector and bring them to the national mainstream
- Provide economic sustainability in life to the street food vendors
- Upgrade quality and safety of processed/unprocessed street food
- Improve the hygienic standards of street food
- Promote clean, safe and good sanitary food service at affordable rates in urban areas
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| In the Pilot Phase, the work of the identification of the vendors through the survey has been undertaken by MFPI through some NGOs. So far, 4300 street food vendors in 9 cities viz. Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Agra, Jaipur, Guwahati, Bangalore and Agartala have been identified and surveyed regarding their knowledge, attitude and practices of food preparation and presentation to the customers. Health Checks of these vendors have been completed. The final report is under compilation. |
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| The Pilot Survey aims at:- |
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- Creation of a complete profile of the street food vendors
- Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of the street food vendors
- Assessment of the need for assistance in terms of capacity building, microfinance etc. by the street food vendors
- Health checks to ascertain the status of health for insurance
- Reporting on the specific steps needed in capacity-building activities for the street food vendors
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| (B) Upgradation/Establishment of “Food-Street”: |
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| Local ethnic dishes are one of the major factors that attract the tourists. If the varieties of these ethnic dishes are made available at one place with all sorts of civic amenities and infrastructure, it will certainly cause a tourist-delight and give a considerable boost to the industry. Here, the emphasis is to provide a rich experience of the traditional culinary expertise to the tourists. As such, 25 cities of tourist attraction shall have one street identified as Food-Street. Each Food-Street shall have a minimum of 25 food-stalls. Infrastructure facilities would be provided for food vending activities in terms of the following:- |
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- Provision of installation/ upgradation of modern food stalls,
- Electricity Supply
- Water supply and drainage,
- Waste disposal system,
- Public utilities,
- Environmental beautification in the form of fountains, lighting arrangements, seating arrangements like benches etc.
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| OBJECTIVES:- |
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| The objectives of the Scheme are to:- |
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- Promote clean, safe and good sanitary food service at affordable rates in locations of tourist importance
- Reduce the risk of food borne diseases to the tourists
- Promote Indian Food
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