Speakers at a discussion have said that a policy on the street food as well for the street food vendors is needed to ensure safe and healthy food for the people in cities and towns.
Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB) Trust arranged the discussion on street food vending virtually on Monday (August 23) as part of its a three-month-long pilot project. The WBB Trust is implementing the project with the support of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
Chief Health Officer of DNCC Brig Gen Md Zobaidur Rahman joined the event as the chief guest with Director of WBB Trust Gaous Pearee in the chair. Chief Technical Adviser of the Dhaka System project of FAO Bangladesh John Taylor, Chief Town Planner of DNCC Maksud Hashem, Prof Dr Abdul Alim, nutrition expert Zohora Khanum, General Secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners Adil Mohammed Khan, Dr Zeba Mahmud, Md Yaqub Ali and Md Masum Billah spoke on the occasion, among others.
Senior Project Officer of WBB Trust Ziaur Rahman moderated the event, while Project Officer of the organisation Naima Akhter presented the keynote address.
In her keynote address, Naima Akter said, “We need to formulate a policy for vendor management. It will be possible to provide license to street food vendors, create database, monitor of responsibilities and duties of the street food vendors if a policy is formulated.”
Brig Gen Zobaidur Rahman said, “We should undertake field level initiatives to bring the street food vendors under a management. We have already started to discuss on how to bring this workforce under licensing. To maintain cleanliness and hygiene, it is important to increase awareness. We need to build a social movement.”
John Taylor emphasised on the importance of food safety in street food vending. “A large numper of the urban poor population is dependent on the street food. It is now playing a vital role in reducing food insecurity among the urban poor. Food safety and hygiene training will help the street food vendors prepare and offer safer food to the urban dwellers,” he said.
Maksud Hashem said that along with meeting food demand and creating employment, the street food vending plays an important role to creating socialization opportunity.
Gaous Pearee said, the number of street food vendors is increasing in our cities and towns. “We need a plan about how many vendors we can accommodate. We also need a vendor management policy to bring the street food vendors under training and monitoring,” she added.
The speakers said that the food vendors is a very familiar scenario in Dhaka city. The food vendors sit in various public places in the city with their products. These vendors play a significant role in meeting the food needs of the city dwellers. Especially poor and middle-class families are largely dependent on the street food vendors. However, street food sale is a source of income for a large number of population.
According to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, 97,000 to 200,000 street food vendors sell a variety of prepared foods, including vegetables and fruits. But among all these vendors, there is a weakness in compliance with hygiene and cleanliness. They have no training in this regard and there are weaknesses in supervision.
