BBC NEWS | South Asia | Delhi street snacks face the chop
You can tell India is desparately trying to purge itself of its image as a poverty-stricken, dirt-ridden, stomach ache causing country. But, the drive for modernity seems to be taking on some very strange guises.
The latest concession towards a more sanitized, western lifestyle has now come in a move to ban street vendors selling food by the roadside! Now, anyone who has ever been to Delhi will know that while the street food eateries can sometimes admittedly be a tough prospect, the taste of the food they serve does not necessarily correlate to the cleanliness of the stall. Obviously, caution is required, as some of the stalls are indeed very grubby.
Yet the market soon sorts itself out, and this is one of the few instances where you can actually see consumer power at work. The trick is simple, if it's good it will attract custom. The more custom the more fresh food gets cooked quicker and the safer it is - from a "gastrohygienic" point of view. Go to an empty stall and you're obviously taking a risk, because the flies and dirt the Supreme Court in Delhi is complaining about really might have taken their toll on the food.
On the other hand, maybe the Supreme Court is simply taking the easy route to the problem by targeting the street stalls. Maybe if they decided to root out the cause of the dirt on the streets, like in the image below I shot in Delhi 2 years ago and which has not changed one iota, or even decided to install an efficient and working waste disposal system, things might be a little easier for the grubby street hawkers.
Then again, without wanting to offend anyone, I sometimes wonder think it will take far too long for India to adopt a healthy attitude towards modern - yes, modern - forms of waste...
The latest concession towards a more sanitized, western lifestyle has now come in a move to ban street vendors selling food by the roadside! Now, anyone who has ever been to Delhi will know that while the street food eateries can sometimes admittedly be a tough prospect, the taste of the food they serve does not necessarily correlate to the cleanliness of the stall. Obviously, caution is required, as some of the stalls are indeed very grubby.
Yet the market soon sorts itself out, and this is one of the few instances where you can actually see consumer power at work. The trick is simple, if it's good it will attract custom. The more custom the more fresh food gets cooked quicker and the safer it is - from a "gastrohygienic" point of view. Go to an empty stall and you're obviously taking a risk, because the flies and dirt the Supreme Court in Delhi is complaining about really might have taken their toll on the food.
On the other hand, maybe the Supreme Court is simply taking the easy route to the problem by targeting the street stalls. Maybe if they decided to root out the cause of the dirt on the streets, like in the image below I shot in Delhi 2 years ago and which has not changed one iota, or even decided to install an efficient and working waste disposal system, things might be a little easier for the grubby street hawkers.
Then again, without wanting to offend anyone, I sometimes wonder think it will take far too long for India to adopt a healthy attitude towards modern - yes, modern - forms of waste...
posted by tranzmitta at
9:07 AM
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