Video: Why Junk Food is Taking Over Delhi’s Slums

Due to inflation and ready availability, people prefer to buy cheap street food, junking the healthier food at home.

Junk food in Delhi slums are taking over the nutritious meal cooked at home.

“Put water to boil, add spices and then the noodles. It gets done in 2 minutes,” says 7-year-old Tannu, with practiced ease. We’re at Madanpur Khadar, a cluster of slums in South-East Delhi, and Tannu is holding a packet of locally-made noodles, which she buys every day for 1 rupee, from a local shop.

According to the Global Health Index (GHI) 2014, India ranks 55 in a list of 76 countries, below Nepal and Sri Lanka. The GHI is an annual report of hunger around the world. It takes into account the percentage of population that is undernourished, the other parameters being child under-nutrition and infant mortality.

India has traditionally been dependent on home-cooked food. Eating out was once taboo. But has the rising cost of food and LPG impacted cooking habits?

“I see a drop in demand as the price of vegetables rises,” said Birendra Singh, a sabzi-walla. “People prefer cheaper food items such as chowmein and burgers. You get a bowl of chowmein for Rs. 10, but karela is for Rs. 20 per kilogram,” said Singh.

I took a walk around the locality. It had open drains and lack of sewage facilities. The area virtually seemed to be a breeding ground for air and water-borne diseases. Unaffected by such concerns, the residents of this area continue to eat samosas, chaats, and bread-pakoras, as it’s “tasty and cheap” food. “It’s easier to buy snacks from outside than to cook food at home. The home-cooked food would cost Rs. 60, but a samosa would be only Rs. 5,” says Vinod Kumar, a resident.

This samosa got me interested. After hearing about it from nearly every household, I promptly found my way to the local shop, where the shopkeeper claimed to sell 200-250 samosas each day. Feeling full, just by the looks of it, I walked on.

A little further, I spotted a group of boys playing in a ground. They stopped playing when they saw me and huddled around, taking a peek at my camera and enquiring about the mic. I asked them what they liked to eat, and almost all of them confessed to eat burger, pizzas, chowmein and momos on a regular basis.

“Main momos ki sabzi nikaal kar, bahar ka maida kha leta hun chutney ke saath (I take out the vegetable fillings from the momos, and eat the outside dough with ketchup)“ said Madhur, an 8 year old boy. The pot-belied image of a child affected with malnutrition has given way to a modern food concern - obesity.

This has got parents concerned. Ravi is a father of four kids and feels helpless against his kids’ demands for junk food. “We know momos and other such items are harmful to the kids, but they become adamant, and we have to buy such food items,” told Ravi.