The urbanisation wave that is sweeping across India represents one of the country’s greatest opportunities as well as one of its most serious challenges. New research by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) emphasizes on the need to build inclusive cities to sustain economic growth in the nation.
A study by National Association of Street Vendors of India estimates that street vendors constitute approximately 2% of the population of a metropolis. The total number of street vendors in the country is estimated at around 1 crore. Street vending is one of the largest categories of informal work employing women.
Several constraints faced by street food vendors with regard to freedom of carrying out the enterprise, access to raw materials, finance, skills, entrepreneurship development, infrastructure, technology and markets.
These manifest into the problems street food vending is conceived to pose, namely:
1. Lack of basic infrastructure and services, such as potable water supplies.
2. Difficulty in controlling the large numbers of street food vending operations because of their diversity, mobility and temporary nature.
3. General lack of factual knowledge about the microbiological status or the precise epidemiological significance of many street-vended foods.
4. Poor knowledge of street vendors in basic food safety measures.
5. Inadequate public awareness of hazards posed by certain street foods.
6. Traffic Congestion.
7. Marginalization of parking space.