The Sustainable Development Goal 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ aims at ending all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Hence, in tandem with the UN mandate, India has worked towards promoting sustainable agriculture, supporting small-scale farmers, and ensuring equal access to land, technology, and markets. While the union government has initiated schemes to aid the provision of ration under the Public Distribution System, the pandemic seems to have worsened the chasm between the urban rich and the urban poor vis-a-vis access to food and nutrition.
Street food has brought the urban poor and low-wage workers closer to food security. Given street food’s wide range and easy availability in metropolitan settings, it serves a vital role in meeting the nutritional needs of the poor. Furthermore, for the urban poor, the street food industry is a significant source of employment. Since cooking is typically regarded as a “woman’s profession” because of the gendered division of labour, the street food industry has the potential to be utilised as a weapon for their economic upliftment.
SPRF, through its first webinar, attempted to address the multiple cracks in India’s food security framework by engaging more holistically with the urban street food sector. The webinar explored the etymology, economy, and sociology of street food, along with a possible place street food can hold in the policy ethos of food security.