The aaroygya case study from hyderabad hyderabad the

The Aaroygya Case study from Hyderabad
Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state in India, has large number of street food
vendors and enjoys the attention of scholars, policy makers and tourists (Bergmann &
Dittrich, 2012; Hoffman & Dittrich 2009; Chada & Mamidi, 2012; Rani & Dittrich, 2010).
Hyderabad has about 15,000 to 18,000 vendors along with employees – altogether about
100,000 people – who make their living out of street food eateries. The street food sector in
the city has experienced phenomenal growth in the last 15 years and more particularly during
last five years. Changing lifestyles, time constraints, cost effectiveness, access and
availability explain why many residents of Hyderabad procure street food at least once a day.

Profiling of street foods in Hyderabad has received attention since 1990 (Seth, 1990; Radha,
1994; Bharati, 1995; Chada & Mamidi, 2012). The vendors vary by size of the unit, mobility
and activity. The street food vending units represent three categories by the process of food
preparation involved, viz., foods prepared in small enterprises and brought to street food
stalls for sale, foods prepared at the vendor’s home and brought to the stall, and foods
prepared and sold at the stall (Chada & Mamidi, 2012). Of them 77.46 per cent are mobile
and 22.54 per cent are on the pavements or roadside stalls (MEPMA, 2009). Street food
vendors are engaged in the preparation and sale of ’tiffins’ (snacks), Chinese food, fast-food
items, chaat bhandar
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, fried meat/fish items, boiled peanuts, chai (tea), etc. Around 150 types
of eatables are sold by the hawkers of Hyderabad (Chada & Mamidi, 2012).
The middle and lower class consumer specifically prefers to purchase from them, as well as
well-off city residents purchasing many commodities owing to taste and unique culinary
preferences. The recent growth of the IT sector and the accompanying outsourcing of
business have also opened up the opportunity of vending of readymade foods at odd times,
especially during the night and early hours during the day. These vendors carry cooked food
on bicycles and motorcycles and serve the customers along the roadside. Some of these food
vendors come in converted kiosks and prepare and sell these items.
Street food vending is often a family enterprise, where women help in pre-preparation of the
food items like cleaning, cutting, boiling, mixing and grinding, while male members do the
final cooking and sell the food items in the streets most often. It is a full-time enterprise for
most of the vendors and about 78 per cent of them work for about 15 hours a day, although
they sell the food in the street for only five to seven hours (Chada & Mamidi, 2012). Street
food is mostly a self-employment activity, 93.04% vendors are owners while the remainder
operate street food stalls as employees for others or on rent from others (MEPMA, 2009).