At a time when corona virus infection is spreading far and wide, throwing caution to the wind, a large section of street food vendors in Kolkata refuse to use gloves and continue to use bare and unwashed hands to prepare food, leaving customers at the peril of contracting various infections.

The West Bengal government has gone on war footing to avoid spread of corona virus by implementing strict rules for its staff that include washing of hands, using hand- sanitisers and masks. Citizens have been asked to do the same. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has laid out guidelines where personal hygiene is being stressed upon.

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However, this still has not been able to discourage street food vendors from using bare and unwashed hands to prepare food. A survey of areas, in and around the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters, at Esplanade, revealed the rampant use of bare hands to make dough for flat-breads that are used for rolls.

Cooks in roll shops were seen casually washing their hands with just water while the ‘phuchka’ sellers continue to mash potatoes with their bare hands. A phuchka seller at Chandni Chowk, when asked whether he washed his hands with soap and cleansed it with a hand-sanitiser, replied, “I don’t have that. I wash it with water. When do I use sanitiser since I am constantly mashing potatoes for phuchka? Customers drop in at random. I don’t want the phuchkas to taste like handsanitisers.”

He added, “As for gloves, I can’t keep buying gloves since they can’t be reused and hence it is not a cost effective option for small time food vendors like us.” A roll shop vendor at Esplanade, who was kneading dough for rolls using his bare hands, said “I have been making rolls for years now and no customer has ever complained of any infection. It is difficult to knead dough when you are wearing gloves. A large portion of the dough gets wasted since it sticks to the gloves.”

Neither was this vendor like several others, using any soap or hand-sanitiser before preparing the food.It must be noted that a wholesome survey on Kolkata street food was recently carried out jointly by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) with World Health Organisation (WHO), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), and other agencies which revealed severe lack of hygiene by street food vendors.

Dr. Indira Chakraborty, who was involved with the project, had pointed out, “Lack of personal hygiene while cooking, continues to be a major problem since vendors don’t wash their hands. Many have been observed scratching or fixing their hair while cooking. The hand gloves remain unchanged and are reused for days.”