Vendors' success from hygiene lessons

Street food vendors in the Indian city of Calcutta say they are experiencing a big upturn in trade after receiving lessons in basic hygiene.

Vendors sustain Calcutta's population of 10 million

It is estimated there may be more than 100,000 open-air food vendors in Calcutta, selling a variety of products, from tea and sweets to full meals and savoury snacks.

However, those who eat at roadside stalls often later complained of diseases and illness.

As a result, the Indian government has taken the initiative to train the food vendors, with a pilot project run by the All India Institute Of Health And Hygiene together with UN's health and food organisations.

"Calcutta's street food doesn't have a large chemical contamination, doesn't have any large physical contamination," Indira Chakrabarti, a scientist at the institute, told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

"It's basically microbe contamination because of bad handling - both water and physical handling - and storage.

"We are mainly highlighting these issues - how to use and maintain clean water, how to keep the food and store it in a safe way, and how to see to it that selling conditions are improved."

'Little housewives'

Street food stalls have long been part of Calcutta's tradition - but recently there has been a marked increase in vendors.

They sometimes come from other jobs having been made redundant, while others come from other states in India.

Dr Chakrabarti said that there was no problem getting the vendors to accept the concept of hygiene, describing them as "like little housewives," who want to give clean food to their family.

There are plans for maps showing where trained vendors are sited

"They intrinsically feel it," she added.

"What we are trying to do is help the vendors achieve what they want to do."

And Onadaya Saha, a vendor who now helps train others, said that learning hygiene skills had meant instant success.

"When the people saw that we were getting trained and were maintaining hygiene, our sales went up sharply," he explained.

As a result, many other vendors are now flocking to sign up for the training.

"After the training, we are using clean utensils, and a special type of water filter fitted to the tap for customers," said one, Purnima Dabe.

"I'm going through the training and I promise to follow all the instruction - like wearing an apron and also keeping an umbrella in the stall, under which my customers can stand and eat their food."

There are now plans to produce maps of "safe stalls" for visitors to the city.

And further plans include taking the food hygiene plan across all of India, and after that for consultants to travel to other countries in South Asia.