Why cholera alone?

Veeresh Malik
31 March 2014, 04:02 PM IST

Regularly, a notice is placed in the newspapers, about shutting down of street food and fresh fruit and juice stalls due to the fear of diseases and deaths - especially due to cholera. This happens all over the country, here is a copy of the one issued in Delhi.

A closer look reveals that this is on the basis of proper rules laid down on the risks therein of such food items to the citizens of Delhi and environs. The risks of death, illness, sickness, and more.

Fair enough, and we are all very grateful at this concern, though it is not known how many people have died of cholera in and around Delhi in the last few decades. And also whether cholera is caused only by fresh fruit and juice or also or largely because of miserable sanitation and lack of clean potable drinking water or worse, open sewage mingling with all facets of our lives.

Right in front of my house, about 50 metres away, a stretch of pavement has collapsed. Below it run sewer lines and fresh water lines. Both these lines co-mingle. The pavement collapses about once every 4-6 months. In front is a hospital.

But even that is not the only real issue.

All over Delhi and the rest of the country we have stalls openly selling soft-drinks which are often if not always transported and stored in the open. It is a known fact that the chemical and other constituents of these soft drinks, whose exact formulations are a trade secret, suffer changes due to exposure to heat and light and plastic.

However, we will never see notices banning the sale of these soft drinks, even when they are sold through open soft-drink dispensing fountains. In and from shops that are open to the streets, with no dearth of dust, flies and more.

All this is hidden behind fancy packaging and marketing, no doubt, so you can't even tell when it goes bad - if it ever was good for you in the first case!

On the other hand, fruit comes in the world's best and safest packaging known - it's own skin. This skin is cut and served fresh or the juice pulped or the juice is removed in some cases even with the skin on. If stored in the open or in the sun, these fruits only riped, and if they go bad, the packaging tells you the story.

But out authorities, in their intelligence, will ban what is healthy and good for us, and openly encourage the sale of sheer disease in well-packaged bottles.

Governance should be spending time, effort and money on educating purveyors of cut fruits and fresh fruit juices on how to serve up safe and clean products to consumers looking for good health. Instead, they ban what is good for us, and promote the garbage in fancy bottles that ruins our health.