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

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. © 2009 European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes.