Chennai, NFAPost: Food delivery platform Swiggy has announced the expansion of its Street Food Vendors program to 125 cities under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme.
This follows a successful pilot that Swiggy initiated with the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in the cities of Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Chennai, Delhi and Indore, through which Swiggy has already onboarded over 300 street vendors on its platform.
Swiggy has created a special destination on the app where consumers can discover their favourite street food vendors. At the time of onboarding, all vendors will be registered with FSSAI and provided with a Food Safety Training and Certification (FOSTAC) in partnership with FSSAI and their empanelled partners.
The SVANidhi Scheme has received loan applications from a whopping 1.47 lakh street food vendors so far. From these, in the first phase alone, Swiggy will onboard an unprecedented 36,000 vendors to whom the loan has been disbursed in 125 cities, potentially making this initiative by Swiggy and MoHUA the largest of its kind not just in India, but globally.
Street food embodies the essence of our culture
Swiggy aims to bring every kind of food experience to the customers’ doorstep; this includes street food, which is an integral part of India’s cultural and economic structure and is often unique to each region. Swiggy also understands the changes and challenges that street food vendors had faced in the wake of the pandemic and which had forced many of them to shut shop overnight.
In an effort to provide meaningful support to the street food vendors to revive their business and offer much-needed visibility, Swiggy is leveraging its platform and large delivery fleet to bring street food to the doorsteps of customers safely and hygienically.
“Even as we go through more stages of Unlock, there has been a long-term change in consumer behaviour regarding continued social distancing and heightened demand for online services like food delivery. As a platform committed to bringing the widest choice of food to the doorsteps of consumers safely and hygienically, we’re delighted to bring them their favourite street food which they have been missing for many months now,” said Swiggy COO Vivek Sunder.
“More importantly, street vendors are integral to the food culture in India and we thank the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for giving Swiggy the opportunity to do our bit to help them adapt to the ‘new normal’ and embrace and thrive in the digital economy,” said Sunder.
Street vendor in Delhi Siddhant Tathed said, “When movement restrictions came into effect, the number of people who flocked our stall suddenly dwindled to none. Even my regular customers were concerned to step out, given the situation. Over the last 6-7 months, there was immense stress on me and my partner, and we were very close to shutting down the business. But then, we learned about being able to list on Swiggy. In 20 days on Swiggy, I have done more orders than in the past four months. Ever since we have come on Swiggy, more people have been ordering from us, including many old customers who found us on Swiggy too. We now have three times more to do.”
“We are so excited to know that Gehsiba Foods is now available on Swiggy. In times when we can’t step out, it was a moment of delight for me and my family to find that our favourite authentic South Indian joint was available online,” said Priya Prakash, a customer from Chennai.
