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The spatial politics of food hygiene: Regulating small-scale retail in Delhi

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  • Dolf JH te Lintelo

    (School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia. E-mails: dlintelo@uea.ac.uk, dolfteli@yahoo.com)

Abstract

In May 2007, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi suddenly banned cooking street foods, with Supreme Court endorsement. Public health concerns overrode implications for the livelihoods of food sellers or Delhi's food culture. This article interprets the ban through an analysis of municipal policy against a backdrop of economic reforms, restructuring retail systems, emerging food safety awareness and growing middle-class claims to the city. It argues that the ban's sudden emergence obscures a regulatory history that consistently privileged particular types of retail, through policy design, formulation and differential implementation. Ostensibly addressing public health, the ban's significance hence lies in reflecting a spatial politics between competing claims of the poor and the middle classes to urban public space.En mai 2007, la municipalité de Delhi interdisit soudainement la préparation et la vente de nourriture dans les rues de la ville, et ceci avec l'approbation de la Court Suprême. La santé publique prenait ainsi le dessus sur un moyen d'existence important des pauvres, ainsi que sur la culture alimentaire traditionelle de Delhi. Cet article interprète cette interdiction en tenant compte du contexte plus large de réforme et de restructuration économique, des débats emergents concernant la sécurité alimentaire, ainsi que des réclamations croissantes de la part de la classe moyenne urbaine. Il est soutenu que que cette soudaine interdiction va à lencontre de l'histoire de la réglementation urbaine à Delhi, qui a toujours favorisé certains types de ventes et d'activités économiques à travers des politiques particulières, dont l'élaboration et l'exécution s'effectuent en général de manière différentiée. Bien que semblant répondre à des soucis de santé publique, l'interdiction en question est en fait le reflet d'une politique spatiale dont le trait principal est une compétition entre les revendications des pauvres et celles d'une classe moyenne émergente par rapport à l'espace public urbain.European Journal of Development Research (2009) 21, 63–80. doi:10.1057/ejdr.2008.10

Suggested Citation

  • Dolf JH te Lintelo, 2009. "The spatial politics of food hygiene: Regulating small-scale retail in Delhi," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 21(1), pages 63-80, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:21:y:2009:i:1:p:63-80
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    Cited by:

    1. René Véron, 2010. "Small Cities, Neoliberal Governance and Sustainable Development in the Global South: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(9), pages 1-16, September.
    2. A. Amarender Reddy & Sandra Ricart & Timothy Cadman, 2020. "Driving factors of food safety standards in India: learning from street-food vendors’ behaviour and attitude," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(6), pages 1201-1217, December.

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