Arogya World has committed to training 10,000 street food vendors across India on healthier cooking practices as part of a new Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action announced Tuesday at the CGI 2026 Annual Meeting in New York.
The two-year initiative aims to help vendors reduce excess salt, avoid repeated use of cooking oil, adopt healthier cooking methods and encourage more balanced meals as part of efforts to prevent diet-related noncommunicable diseases, particularly diabetes and hypertension.
The scale of the program could give the initiative a broad reach. Arogya World estimates that each street food vendor serves about 80 to 100 customers a day, meaning 10,000 trained vendors could potentially influence the food choices of hundreds of thousands of consumers daily.
“We want to change the way India eats,” said Dr. Nalini Saligram, founder and CEO of Arogya World. “Millions of Indians eat food from corner food carts, before work, after school, and between shifts. We think it is therefore smart to educate street food vendors on healthier cooking, in addition to educating consumers, as part of our comprehensive nationwide diabetes prevention strategy.”
Program to begin in Mumbai and Bengaluru
Arogya World will implement the initiative in collaboration with the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), beginning in Mumbai and Bengaluru before expanding to other urban centers.
The organizations will use practical, visual and culturally appropriate training materials designed for vendors with different levels of literacy. Training will focus on salt reduction, safer use of cooking oil, healthier ingredients and cooking methods, and the connection between dietary practices and NCDs.
Pre- and post-training assessments will be used to measure changes in knowledge and practices, while standardized training materials are intended to make the program easier to replicate across cities.
“We are proud to partner with Arogya World on this important public health initiative and will facilitate community engagement and cascade the needed training,” said Arbind Singh, national coordinator of NASVI. We can together empower our community of marginalized workers to improve their own health as well as that of the customers they cook for.”
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Beyond Type 1 will provide funding support for the initiative. “We’re pleased to join this coalition of organizations committed to improving global health,” said Kristian Hurley, executive vice president, Social Impact and Global Advocacy at Beyond Type 1. “Improving health requires solutions that are informed by the people they’re designed to serve.”
Program builds on 2024 pilot
The new commitment builds on Arogya World’s street food vendor training work in Bengaluru.
A peer-reviewed study published in the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health evaluated a community-based intervention involving 500 street food vendors across seven high-footfall locations in Bengaluru. The study found that about 80% to 85% of participants retained core messages on oil use, salt reduction and healthier cooking practices after six months.
Arogya World’s subsequent account of the pilot reported improvements in nutrition knowledge, including an increase in awareness of recommended daily salt intake from 42% before the intervention to 79% afterward. Knowledge of recommended oil intake increased from 26% to 69%.
The study also found that sustained behavioral change was more difficult than improving knowledge, pointing to the need for refresher training, economic and structural support and continued reinforcement. Arogya World said its 2024 pilot also found that 98% of participating vendors had never received formal training on reducing excessive salt use or the risks associated with repeatedly reusing frying oil.
The organization says the pilot demonstrated that vendors could adopt healthier cooking practices without undermining their businesses, while consumers were receptive to healthier options.
India faces a major diabetes burden
The initiative comes as India faces a substantial burden of diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
The ICMR-INDIAB national study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, estimated that 101 million people in India had diabetes and another 136 million had prediabetes in 2021. The same study estimated that 315 million people had hypertension.
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Street food is an important part of India’s urban food environment, providing affordable meals and snacks to millions of people. Arogya World says the sector includes an estimated 10 million vendors. The organization argues that while food safety and hygiene initiatives have expanded, nutrition-focused interventions targeting India’s informal food sector remain limited.
Its work in Bengaluru has included training vendors in local languages and using visual materials to address issues such as salt, cooking oil, refined ingredients and healthier food choices. Arogya World says a 2026 update on the program found that vendors continued to retain many of the core health messages, although maintaining behavior change required ongoing reinforcement.
Arogya World’s broader health work
Arogya World is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on preventing diabetes and other NCDs through behavior-change and health-promotion programs.
The organization says it has reached more than 29.5 million people in India over the past 15 years through programs aimed at healthier eating, physical activity and other health-seeking behaviors.
Arogya World has also previously made and fulfilled multiple Clinton Global Initiative Commitments to Action. Under the latest commitment, it will lead program design and implementation, including nutrition education, behavior-change communication, monitoring and evaluation, and health-promotion activities.
The Clinton Global Initiative was founded by former President Bill Clinton in 2005. According to CGI, its network has launched more than 4,300 Commitments to Action involving more than 13,000 organizations.
The new street food initiative will run over the next two years, with Arogya World, NASVI and Beyond Type 1 working together to expand healthier cooking practices across India’s informal food sector.