Netflix’s “Street Food” Shows the Real Struggles of the Working Poor
By Carlin Carr
The latest Netflix culinary sensation, “Street Food,” takes viewers into the bite-sized treats served up on some of Asia’s most bustling cities, including Bangkok, Delhi and Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
But the show also tells the stories of the workers behind the steaming dumplings and kabobs. It reveals the struggles street-side chefs face — from being chased out of their selling spots to battling the weather elements — as they try to make ends meet in the world’s biggest cities.
What’s being ignored in the sanitizing of urban streets is how essential vendors are to the fabric of urban life in many places around the world.
Although one women received a Michelin star for her creative takes on traditional Thai food, most vendors hustle in anonymity and are subject to the harsh realities of selling on the sidewalks.
Street vendors make cities better places
Their stories are familiar. In our work with organizations of street vendors around the globe, we hear constant reports of how vendors are experiencing increasing hostility — from New York to New Delhi. Evictions are rampant. Harassment is regular. Urban authorities are clearing city streets as they aim to “modernize.” And vendors are finding themselves in a fight for survival.
What’s being ignored in the sanitizing of urban streets is how essential vendors are to the fabric of urban life in many places around the world. Vendors feed residents with affordable prepared foods and fresh fruits and veggies. They provide quick and convenient eats and produce in bustling spots, near stations, residential complexes and parks.
Their presence also makes streets safer, especially for women. Some vendors have been in the same neighborhood spot for years, even decades; they bring together people of all classes. Not to mention that in places like Bangkok, street-food vendors are a huge tourist draw, boosting the local economy.
We wanted to share a broader portrait of the daily lives of these workers. Below are eight stories of street vendors on three continents. All have one thing in common: they continue to work in the face of widespread hostility to earn a living for themselves and their families. And, despite authority’s aim for a future without them, customers continue to flock to get their goods.
Accra, Ghana
Charity Sowu, fish vendor
Vending is a source of livelihood that keeps families out of extreme poverty. Charity Sowu knows this well. She has been working as a street trader since she completed middle school, more than 35 years ago now. She sells fish from all over Ghana and prepares them in a variety of ways, including smoked and with diverse spices, for her customers at Tema Station in Accra. Her earnings have enabled her to support her four children and put them through school.
One of the challenges street vendors and other informal workers face is that they are accused of not paying taxes and operating in the “shadow economy.” Charity, like other vendors at Tema Station, pays daily, monthly, and yearly licensing fees and tolls to the city government to enable her to operate there. As a member of the Tema Station Traders Association, she has participated in policy dialogues with the city government to discuss congestion, evictions, sanitation, facilities, and security.
Bety Anoyi, clothing vendor
Bety Anoyi has been on the frontlines of change in her city. She set up shop her micro clothing shop in what used to be a mostly vacant lot in Accra’s East Legon neighourhood. The move was necessary after the city launched widespread infrastructure projects, including road paving, in her old neighborhood. Many vendors chose to leave and relocate to vacant, unclaimed spaces on roadsides in close proximity to bus stations and taxi ranks and, most importantly, customers.
These transport nodes brought in a large number of pedestrians and commuters who would stop and buy Bety’s merchandise. In time, more and more vendors like Bety set up shop in these spaces, increasing the number of clothing, food, and other stalls and kiosks. The informal vendors became a collective economic magnet of their own, bringing new commerce and productivity to East Legon, making a once-vacant place more of a hub.
Ahmedabad, India
Choral Mauladia, vegetable vendor
In Ahmedabad, an urban hub in the western Indian state of Gujarat, street food vendors, such as Choral Mauladia, dot the city streets, selling fresh fruits and vegetables as well as a host of cooked foods. India passed a landmark law in 2014 to protect street vendors from eviction, but the situation continues to be challenging for vendors across the country. Choral decided to joined the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union that works to secure the rights of workers in the informal sector, to join hands with other vendors and fight for their place in the city.
Neetha Rathore, home cook for her husband’s snack cart
Neetha Rathore and her husband work as a team to support their family through street-food selling. Every day, Neetha Rathore makes huge quantities of curried potatoes, a stuffing for the Indian snack her husband sells on his food cart. Many women like Neetha work as part of a family business, but their contribution is often invisible and their economic contributions often go unseen. She also joined SEWA to meet other women in her position and gain solidarity as they work to improve conditions in their work environment.
Bangkok, Thailand
Areerat Chullathip, hot-food vendor
Bangkok’s street vendors are some of the most well known and globally beloved. Tourists come from all over to taste everything from mango sticky rice to crickets, but vendors play an equally important role in the lives of every day residents. However, recently, vendors have faced widespread evictions from the streets, even in some of the most high-profile areas.
Areerat Chullathip is a street vendor in Bangkok’s Economy Square and provides home-cooked food for customers. Areerat spends long hours cutting, chopping, washing and cooking before even getting to her vending spot. At the end, she hauls home her empty dishes, cleaning into the wee hours of the night — all to eke out a living.
Surunya Jindawiwat and Suree Wongtrakul, vendors of household items
Surunya Jindawiwat and Suree Wongtrakul are also street vendors in Bangkok’s Economy Square. Like many street vendors around the world, they have struggled to secure their right to vend. To tackle this issue, they have formed a savings group and a cooperative to strengthen their organization and joined HomeNet Thailand, a network that supports informal workers, in their aim for a more secure livelihood, to gain solidarity in their efforts.
Lima, Peru
Félix Builches Coronel, newspaper vendor
Although street-food vendors pique our culinary senses, vendors of all types sell essential goods to busy residents on the go. Félix Builches Coronel is one of them.
He sells newspapers on the streets of Lima as cars zip by. Thousands of newspaper vendors like him make their living out of this activity, working long hours through all sorts of weather — from rain to blazing heat.
Félix’s work can be dangerous, too. Vendors selling newspapers in the streets are at risk of being run over or can fall victim to crime. He is a member of the National Federation of Newspapers, Magazines and Lottery Vendors (Federación Nacional de Vendedores de Diarios, Revistas y Loterías del Perú or FENVENDRELP), which works to improve the situation for these informal workers.
Silvenia Bari, fish vendor
Street and market vendors often sell one very focused good, and they know it as well as any expert. That’s true for Silvenia Bari. She is a fish vendor in one of Lima’s street markets, and she is able to interact with her customers about their likes and dislikes, and provides any quantity needed, big or small. For people who live on a day-to-day basis, it is important to be able to purchase smaller, more affordable quantities.
What do we want our future cities to look like?
These eight stories show how street vendors are out in the open every day helping to make urban hubs run.
If cities fail to recognize the value of street vendors — not just their essential services but also the livelihoods they provide to people often with no alternative — then the risks of increased poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition and unemployment are high.
Luckily, some cities have decided to include street vendors and have shown that public spaces can be more vibrant with them.
Monrovia, Liberia, for example, developed a collaboration between a country-wide organization of street vendors, Federation of Petty Traders and Informal Workers Union of Liberia (FEPTIWUL), and the city to decide where traders can sell, when they can operate, and how to clean trading areas. Block-level vendor leaders ensure everyone sticks to the deal. This helps keeps space for pedestrians while also making room for vendors to be a part of the city.
There are ways forward if cities work with street vendors rather than against them to find a way to make public space work for all.
Find more information on strategies for city officials to include informal livelihoods in public space or at wiego.org.
