Maha ropes in NGO to teach healthy cooking to street vendors

The Maharashtra government is conducting a campaign for street vendors in Mumbai, in which, they are being trained in preparing food in a hygienic manner with the help of an NGO, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official said today.

"As part of the campaign, our team is imparting training to the street vendors on healthy cooking of edible items," said Shailesh Adhav, Joint Commissioner, FDA.

On March 27, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched a mobile van, donated by a corporate, and new vehicles of the FDA at Vidhan Bhavan here.

The programme was initiated by the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), an NGO working for the cause of hawkers in the country.

"We keep educating the street vendors on how to make their products more healthy and hygienic by inviting them at our workshops. But this time, we thought to reach them by going door to door and it has yield very positive response. Our officials are explaining them various procedures like using less oil while cooking, cleaner water, checking the purity of the raw materials," Adhav said.

At the end of two-hour-long training session, we give the vendors a certificate as well a kit containing an apron, gloves and caps.

Senior manager, NASVI, Arvind Shukla said the training is all about preparing and selling quality food.