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In India, millions of people eat street food, but authorities say there are serious concerns about food safety.
Last week, two states led by India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced plans to impose heavy fines and jail terms for contaminating food with spit, urine and dirt.
The northern state of Uttarakhand will fine violators up to 100,000 rupees ($1,190; £920), while neighboring Uttar Pradesh prepares to introduce laws more stringent to resolve this problem.
The government directives followed the release of unverified videos on social media showing vendors spitting on food at local stalls and restaurants – and a video showing a house help mixing urine with food that she was preparing.
While the videos sparked outrage among users, many of whom expressed concerns about food security in those states, some of them were also the subject of blame campaigns targeting Muslims, which were later debunked by fact-checking websites.
They pointed out that many people on social media had claimed that the woman who added urine to food was Muslim, but police later identified her as Hindu.
Officials say strict laws are necessary and aim to deter people from engaging in unhygienic eating practices, but opposition leaders and legal experts have questioned the effectiveness of these laws and allege that they could also be misused to vilify a specific community.
The Indian Express newspaper criticized the proposed Uttar Pradesh state ordinances, saying they “act as a communal (sectarian) dog whistle that preys on the majority's notions of purity and pollution and targets a minority already precarious.
Food and eating habits are sensitive topics in culturally diverse India, as they are deeply linked to religion and the country's hierarchical caste system. Norms and taboos around food sometimes lead to clashes between communities, giving rise to feelings of distrust. As a result, the notion of “food safety” has also become entangled with religion, which is sometimes used to attribute a motive to alleged contamination incidents.
Food safety is also a major concern in India, with the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) estimating that unsafe foods cause around 600 million infections and 400,000 deaths annually.
Experts cite various reasons for poor food safety in India, including inadequate enforcement of food safety laws and a lack of awareness. Cramped kitchens, dirty utensils, contaminated water, and poor transportation and storage practices further compromise food safety.
So when videos surfaced of vendors spitting in food, people were shocked and outraged. Soon after, Uttarakhand announced heavy fines for violators and made police verification of hotel staff and installation of CCTV in kitchens mandatory.
In Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said to stop such incidents, police should check every employee. The state also plans to require food centers to display the names of their owners, cooks and waiters to wear masks and gloves and the installation of video surveillance in hotels and restaurants.
According to reports, Adityanath is planning to pass two ordinances that will penalize spitting in food with a jail term of up to 10 years.
Amit Saini
Shops along a Hindu pilgrimage route have been asked to display contact details of their owners.
In July, the Indian Supreme Court had stayed directives issued by the governments of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh asking people running food stalls along the route of the Kanwar yatra – an annual Hindu pilgrimage – to prominently display the names and other identity details of their owners. The petitioners told the top court that the guidelines unfairly targeted Muslims and would negatively impact their businesses.
Police in the state's Barakanki town on Wednesday arrested restaurant owner Mohammad Irshad for allegedly spitting on a roti (flatbread) while he was preparing it. Mr. Irshad was accused of disturbing peace and religious harmony, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
Earlier this month, police in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, arrested two men – Naushad Ali and Hasan Ali – for allegedly spitting into a pot while making tea, and charged them with causing the public outrage and put their health at risk, The Hindu reported.
The videos of the men spitting, which circulated on social media days before their arrest, took a religious turn after many Hindu nationalist accounts began calling them incidents of “thook-jihad” or “spit -jihad”.
The term is a version of “love-jihad” that was coined by radical Hindu groups, who use it to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women through marriage. By extension, “think-jihad” accuses Muslims of trying to defile Hindus by spitting in their food.
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There are millions of street food stalls in India that offer a variety of cuisines.
This is not the first time that the Muslim community has been the target of accusations. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a series of fake videos showing Muslims spitting, sneezing or licking objects to infect people with the virus went viral on social media. The videos have deepened religious polarization, with extremist Hindu accounts posting anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Opposition leaders in the two BJP-ruled states criticized the new guidelines, saying they could be used to target Muslims and that the government was using the guidelines as a smokescreen to divert attention from other key problems like unemployment and soaring inflation.
But Manish Sayana, Uttarakhand's food safety officer, says the government's orders are only aimed at making food safe for consumption. He told the BBC that food safety officers and police have started carrying out surprise checks at restaurants and are “urging people to wear masks and gloves and install CCTV cameras” everywhere they go for checks.
Legal expert and journalist V Venkatesan says there is a need for new ordinances and laws on food safety to be duly debated in the Assembly.
“In my view, the existing laws (under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006) are sufficient to deal with any food safety offense. We must therefore ask ourselves why these new laws and directives are necessary? he asks.
“Governments seem to think that laws with harsh penalties will deter people from committing crimes, but research has shown that it is good enforcement of laws that will deter people from committing crimes. Thus, the existing laws have not yet been properly implemented in these states. ?”
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