Workshop for Street Vendors to Make City a "Safe Food Town"

By Samachar Vishesh News

Chandigarh 03^rd April, 2019:- Street vendors are an integral part any society and they give a sense of vibrancy to any city. They constitute an important segment at the bottom of the pyramid of the informal economy in cities. Street vending has a prominent place in the urban supply chain, and provides inexpensive and convenient access to goods and services to all segments of the population including the poor.

Street food vendors are a special group in this regard and are an integral and important role in urban food supply chain. Street food gives people affordable local foods at convenient locations. As per Government of India (GOI), there are, about 20 lacs street food vendors in India and around 3300 street food vendors in Chandigarh as per MCC.

GOI endeavour to support urban street vendors is reflected through National Urban Livelihoods Mission.  Chandigarh as a modern planned city can certainly take a lead here through training and skill development. A concept of ‘Safe Food Town’ needs to be developed & nurtured in tandem with declaration of Chandigarh as a Smart City.

To achieve this goal Department of Community Medicine and SPH, PGIMER, Chandigarh and Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh has jointly initiated a project entitled “Convergence of initiative of Women, Child and Social development agencies of Chandigarh for mainstreaming Street Vendors’ Welfare through integrated training enterprise of its Municipal Corporation with special focus on street food hygiene”, under the patronage of KK Yadav, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh.

As a part of this project, 20 workshops will be held over a period of one year in Chandigarh. Through these workshops, training will be imparted to encourage and ensure that operation of Chandigarh Street vendors conform to- Byelaws of MCC, Food Safety and Standard Regulation 2011, Street vendors Act 2014, Child Labor Act, Swacchh Bharat Mission, Women empowerment & prevention of their exploitation. They will be empowered and enlightened about their rights and responsibilities.

In addition, three carts will be designed, manufactured and pilot tested to convert Chandigarh into a safe food town.

The Principal coordinator for this project is Dr Amarjeet Singh Professor, School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh. The project is co-developed by Saurabh Mishra, Additional Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh,Vivek Trivedi, Social Developmental officer, NULM, Municipal Corporation,  Chandigarh and Dr. Sonu Goel, Additional Professor, School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh.

The first capacity building & training workshop was held on 3^rd April 2019 at City Livelihood Centre, Community Sewa Kendra, Sector 25, Chandigarh. A total of 40 registered street vendors attended the same. The vendors along with the training gotfree medical checkup by the doctors of Community Medicine, PGIMER, Chandigarh.

KK Yadav, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh was the Chief Guest and he inaugurated the ‘Street Food Vendors’ Hygiene Kit’. Dr. Amarjeet Singh gave the inaugural address. This was followed by an interesting play on ‘food safety issues’ presented by students of NINE, PGIMER, Chandigarh. The play was organized under the guidance of Ms. Damanpreet Kaur (Tutor, NINE, PGIMER, Chandigarh).

Vivek Trivedi explained the bye-laws related to Protection Of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending.

Ravider from The Mask Theatre Group also staged a street play on this topic using Maddari-Jamoora motif.

Mrs Sangeeta Vardhan, Town Vending Committee Member, Chandigarh, explained the rights and responsibilities of street vendors. She interacted with the audience and addressed their grievances.

Harkit Singh, Punjab National Bank, Chandigarh came to increase awareness about financial literacy and various micro financing schemes as applicable among street food vendors

Dr. Geeta Mehra, faculty from MCM-DAV, Sector 36, Chandigarh gave demonstration on ‘foldscope’. She showed slides of microbes present in unhygienic food samples.

Sunil Arya faculty from AIHM, Sector 42, Chandigarh demonstrated the hygienic practices to be followed while food preparation and handling. He also highlighted the safety uniform features (like apron, head cover, gloves, etc) to be worn while preparing food. 

Hindustan Unilever Limited supports the training of Street Food Vendors being jointly organized by Dept. of Community Medicine and School of Public PGI Chandigarh and Municipal Corporation Chandigarh as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative.

Dr. Nidhi Jaswal (SD, Community Medicine & SPH, PGIMER, Chandigarh) took a session on Laughter Yoga.