SMART CITIES, INVISIBLE FOOD

Food sold in street markets, small shops, and roadside stalls plays an important role in urban India. However, the current urban planning and design processes do not integrate food system functions of produce, sale and consumption within this planning framework. Governmental models for climate ready and smart cities are nearly solely focused on the infrastructure, mobility and service efficiencies associated with cities; food safety and nutrition and informal food livelihoods are included only incidentally or not at all. Governmental policies and programmes have created predictable outcomes of overstretched enforcement of food regulations, which create unsafe food environments for consumers and many informal food vendors (particularly women), while cities are still celebrating their “smart” solutions.

Additionally, the guidelines for urban governance for the smart cities mission focus heavily on project pipelines, special purpose vehicles and investment of capital; however, they do not recognize urban food systems as a specific planning domain within the larger context of urban planning processes. Mission documents provide a listing of transport, housing, open spaces, ICT and service delivery as urban priorities, but do not include food systems as a fundamental planning objective and therefore do not establish a mandatory requirement for urban residents to be able to access safe, nutritious and affordable food. Urban local bodies, state food safety authorities and health departments are responsible for regulating food systems; however, smart city SPVs focus on execution of project management and the use of dashboards instead of the ways in which food systems interact with our daily lives as residents of urban areas. (MoHUA–NIUA, 2015; MoHUA, 2016)

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In India, urban diets are largely comprised of street foods. There are a significant number of low-and middle-income urban households that rely on low-cost cooked food that is usually available close to their places of employment, commerce, and public transportation (MoHUA, 2016; FSSAI, 2020). The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has developed initiatives under the “Eat Right India” program to address public concerns regarding hygiene. These initiatives are aimed at assisting low-and middle-income households with the development of “Clean Street Food Hubs” which certify networks of vendors who meet specific standards for infrastructure, training and the safety of the food they provide (FSSAI, 2018; FSSAI, 2020). The guidelines outline the types of infrastructure which must be maintained by certified Clean Street Food Hubs, including access to portable (drinking) water, the use of proper waste management systems, the availability of handwashing stations, and adherence to structural normative that promote the safe preparation and sale of foods. Furthermore, the guidelines encourage state and local governments to support the establishment of these “Clean Street Food Hubs” by providing training for vendors and infrastructural support, rather than taking only punitive measures against vendors. (FSSAI, 2018; FSSAI, 2020)

Despite these positive changes, enforcement capacity still lags behind the size and scope of the informal food economy in many Indian cities (FSSAI, 2020; FSSAI, 2023). Studies of the street food vending sector in urban and semi-urban locales indicate that gaps persist in regards to the number of licensed street food vendors, the overall cleanliness of street food vendors, and access to potable water and sanitation facilities, even where general public knowledge of the existence of food safety laws and regulations exists (FSSAI, 2020; Pawar & Dhanvijay, 2025).This mismatch between regulatory ambition and on‑ground capacity tends to produce uneven enforcement, where certain hubs benefit from structured interventions while many small, scattered vendors face sporadic crackdowns or continue operating in regulatory grey zones (FSSAI, 2018; FSSAI, 2020). The urban food system’s governance gaps are not gender neutral. These governance failures are not socially neutral. They intersect sharply with existing gender inequalities. Because of the way that women both participate in, and experience, these gaps, they have additional layers of complexity. Women’s economic (i.e., unpaid) and social (i.e., paid) work patterns heavily influence how they access and participate in fragmented systems (MoSPI, 2020; IHD, 2025). The most current official time use survey shows that women in India spend about four to five times as many hours as men doing household and caregiving tasks without pay, thereby limiting their ability to navigate the lengthy licensing and compliance systems (MoSPI, 2020). Additionally, research on unpaid care work reinforces that women in low-income households/communities often undertake both informal paid activities, such as street-vending or selling home-processed foods, and significant unpaid caregiving responsibilities, placing them at heightened risk of experiencing financial shocks/income disruption due to regulatory changes (IHD, 2025). Given that these structural barriers exist, when a woman is required to submit multiple forms, attend multiple visits, or undergo multiple inspections that are not coordinated across departments, this creates an additional burden (i.e., hidden tax) on her time, energy and mental load (MoSPI, 2020; IHD, 2025). Given that most women who operate small-scale food businesses or run family vendors generally have limited financial resources and reduced levels of bargaining power when it comes to securing space and infrastructure, the adverse effect of sudden evictions, relocations, or sudden compliance demands that do not have supportive services available becomes magnified (IHD, 2025). When urban food governance remains fragmented, it therefore reinforces existing gender inequalities rather than correcting them, even when policies are formally gender‑neutral. (MoSPI, 2020; IHD, 2025)

According to the government, the architecture of India’s smart city projects has already included a significant investment in digital infrastructures; for example, Integrated Command and Control Centers that allow for monitoring and management of a city’s resources (MoHUA 2016; MoHUA 2024), dashboards at the city level that allow for seamless access to all of a city’s resources, and e-governance platforms that allow citizens to connect with their government agencies using a variety of digital devices. All these systems have the capability to provide real time data on traffic flow, solid waste disposal, and the surveillance of public areas via video cameras. In addition, these systems provide the foundation to provide information about food resources, which by identifying indicators associated with these resources would allow city managers and elected officials to view and monitor food-related issues (MoHUA 2016; FSSAI 2020) using the same integrated platform. Therefore, by providing food resources visible within the same framework that is used to monitor other city infrastructure (such as transportation, lighting, and criminal activity), food can be placed on the same level as other important issues that require governance and policy. (MoHUA 2024; FSSAI 2020)

When developing digital tools to assist vendors who sell food, it is important to take into consideration the constraints and limitations faced by these vendors and design the tools with the purpose of reducing the costs associated with their existing business transactions, rather than merely digitizing existing onerous business processes (FSSAI 2018; MoHUA 2016). The online registration options developed by FSSAI for small food businesses, as well as the creation of the FoSTaC (Food Safety Training and Certification) platform, provide an excellent foundation for low-cost, easily accessible, standardized training and compliance assistance (which can be accessed online) for those involved in the small food business sector (FSSAI 2018; FSSAI 2020). Linking these systems with municipal vending schemes and urban livelihood programmes would enable a single, mobile‑first interface through which vendors can register, renew, access training and receive alerts, which is particularly important for women balancing paid work with extensive unpaid care duties. (MoSPI, 2020; IHD, 2025)

In addition to making regulations more effective and predictable given limited regulatory capacity, a risk-based- and data-driven-enforcement approach (FSSAI, 2020; Pawar & Dhanvijay, 2025) provides the means to aggregate the results of official food testing, complaint records, and inspection histories in order to create risk-based classifications for areas, food categories, and seasons, allowing regulatory agencies to concentrate inspection and training resources on the locations and food categories that need them the most, rather than spreading inspection and training resource allocations thinly and randomly (FSSAI, 2020; FSSAI, 2023). Sharing this risk information among urban local bodies, health departments, and food safety authorities through shared digital platforms will enable urban local bodies, health departments, and food safety authorities to jointly plan their inspections, upgrade their infrastructure and develop their awareness campaigns, thereby eliminating duplication of effort and arbitrary actions (MoHUA, 2016; MoHUA, 2024). Most importantly, all these changes do not require any new flagship missions, they are simply a means of using existing laws, schemes, and data more effectively and efficiently (MoHUA–NIUA, 2015; MoHUA, 2024). As part of an urban plan manual, constructing smart city guidelines and creating municipal reform roadmaps in order to establish a formal planning objective for access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food in master plans, zoning norms and service standards for markets and vending areas, can be created through the use of these risk-based and data-driven enforcement approaches (MoHUA–NIUA, 2015; MoHUA, 2016).

Incorporating FSSAI’s “Eat Right” standards and certification programs into planning at the city level will establish a single standard for the way food streets and markets are designed and supported, making many isolated good practices commonplace throughout cities (FSSAI, 2018; FSSAI, 2020). Integrating food into India’s urban governance system is more than preventing food contamination or checking off ‘nutritional boxes.’  It involves recognizing that the practices of preparing and consuming food are an integral part of how people in urban areas interact with each other (MoHUA, 2015; FSSAI, 2020). Once food becomes recognized as a core concern in urban planning frameworks, data systems, and technology, smart cities can emerge as safer, more livable, and more equitable communities for the individuals, primarily women food workers, who provide food to the community. (MoHUA, 2024; MoSPI, 2020; IHD, 2025)

References:

1. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. (2018). Clean Street Food: Project guidelines. Government of India. https://fssai.gov.in/cms/clean-street-food.php
2. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. (2023). Annual report 2022–23. Government of India. https://fssai.gov.in/
3. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. (n.d.). Healthy and hygienic food streets toolkit. Government of India. https://eatrightindia.gov.in/
4. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. (2023). Cities Readiness Report 3.0. Government of India.
5. ​Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, & National Institute of Urban Affairs. (2023). ClimateSmart Cities Assessment Framework 3.0: Technical document. Government of India. https://niua.in/
6. ​Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. (2020). Time use in India – 2019. Government of India. https://mospi.gov.in/time-use-survey
7. ​National Statistical Office. (2024). Time Use Survey (TUS), January 2019–December 2019 [Data set]. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. https://microdata.gov.in/
8. PRS Legislative Research. (2025, August 31). Functioning of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. https://prsindia.org/

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