Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Capacity building for roadside food vendors

Staff Reporter

MADURAI: The Federation of Consumer Organisations - Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry (FEDCOT) and the Consumer International, Regional Office of the Asia Pacific (CI-ROAP) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, jointly organised a capacity building training here for roadside food vendors to ensure the sale of hygienic food to consumers.

The programme also aimed at motivating vendors to emerge as an organised unit. Inaugurating the Tamil Nadu Street-food Vendors Association and counselling centre for the vendors during an one-day capacity building training programme held under the aegis of the FEDCOT and CI-ROAP on Saturday, the chairman of FEDCOT, P. Duraisingam, said Madurai, the city that never sleeps, accommodated different kinds of shops especially roadside eateries.

Over the years, street vending emerged as an inevitable vending system in developing countries and it played a major role in providing self-employment and sustained income for nearly five percent of the urban poor, of which the majority were women, he said. Though such stalls served the needs of the people by providing food at affordable prices, they failed to get adequate recognition. No vendor was provided with license to run stall, Mr. Duraisingam said adding many functioned under unhygienic conditions.

Hence, the FEDCOT and CI -ROAP initiated measures to improve the quality of roadside food vending by making it more consumer-friendly. The programme aimed at educating vendors on importance of serving safe and quality food to consumers by adopting appropriate changes and good practices. This was being done as roadside food vending played a key role in maintaining food security to the poor and labourers.

The meeting proposed to encourage roadside vendors to form an association at city level and register it under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act of 1975. The Tamil Nadu Association of Street food Vendors would be enabled to develop a code of conduct and provide safe and hygienic food and good service to consumers. The FEDCOT and CI-ROAP established a counselling centre at 22 B, Rajangam Plaza, Melur Road, (opposite Corporation). Susai Michael, executive director, FEDCOT, Prof. R. Kaladharan and C. Packialakshmi of the FEDCOT spoke.

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