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down To earth

Pavement eateries galore

ASM NURUNNABI
A common feature of Dhaka's life is the profusion of roadside snack stalls, with rickshaw-pullers and people of other low-income groups being the main customers. These roadside stalls are often set up on four-wheel mobile vans which have the advantage of quickly moving from one place to another.
Such necessity may arise whenever law enforcers decide to clear a crowded area of congestion created by vans, regardless of the consideration whether they are legally set up or not.
In most cases, however, such mobile establishments operate without proper licence from the City Corporation. Such snack stalls have come up in a big way all over the city only because there is a high demand for the food items
that they supply to the low-income groups of city dwellers.
Such snack stalls are mainly located at busy road intersections and also along some main roads in the city. If such locations enjoy the cool of big trees, this constitutes an added attraction for the customers. That is particularly true about summer. Concentration of a large number of rickshaws can be seen, for example, at places near the Jigatola bus-stand, by the side of the Topkhana Road near the corporate branch of the Sonali Bank, in the shade of the tall buildings along the RAJUK Avenue etc. Such concentration of rickshaws at those places means brisk business for the mobile stalls.
It has been observed that the main items of snacks catered by these stalls consist of small loaves
of bread and banana supplemented by large consumption of tea. Soft drinks are not much preferred, because they cost a lot more. on the other hand, a couple of small loaves of bread taken with a couple of bananas and a cup of tea are more stomach-filling at a lesser cost. The secret of consumption of these two items of food lies here. Besides their role in easing the pang of hunger, they are better foods without unhygienic contamination.
In summer, seasonal fruits also occupy an important place in the business of the roadside stalls. Though most people are pressed not to spend extra money beyond their essential needs, they seem to harbour a definite craving for the seasonal fruits. A cursory view of the business in seasonal fruits carried on in some areas suggests FROM PAGE 12
that depending on the season, the favourite fruits are the cucumber, water melon, pineapple, papaya, green coconut, etc.
As in the case of the mainly bread and banana selling mobile stalls, the fruit selling mobile stalls operate from one end of Baitul Mukarram to the old railway station across Gulistan and the stadium areas, besides numerous other locations. The hospitals also provide suitable locations for the fruit stalls.
In the old part of the city, Sadarghat, Moulvibazar and the district court area are important centres of this trade.
It is a stark reality of urban life that, when considered against the background of the vast segment of the city population being hard pressed to fend for two meals a day, there is no place for fruits of any kind in their menu. An important question connected with the sale of snacks and fruits through the numerous food stalls appears to be whether such food items are safe for health. There is a risk for common people who take such foods. The sellers in the fruits and snacks retailing stalls are mostly lacking in knowledge of hygiene and sanitation. The City Corporation should play a more effective role, through its public health department, in ensuring good quality of the food items sold through the mobile snack stalls, with particular emphasis on safe food handling practices. This is needed in the
overall interest of public health.
The preference of the common people, particularly rickshawpullers, for consumption of bread and banana with tea to stave off hunger seems to be a reflection of their good food habit inasmuch as it saves them from taking otherwise harmful foods.