There are so many people in the city who only eat bananas
for lunch. It is cheap and it fills you, writes Saajan Fernandes, to Ila while
returning his lunchbox to the
dabbwala who would deliver it back to Ila.
If you have watched The Lunchbox, it captivates its audience with innocence and the portrayal of
the most oldest and efficient systems in the world, the Mumbai Dabbawalas. The film
perfectly defines the reality of life of Mumbaikers and what is often ignored
in the life of the hardworking dabbawala’s.
Who Are the Mumbai
Dabbawalas?
The Mumbai Dabbawalas today, comprise of about 5,000
individuals who are incharge of delivering home-made food in the traditional tin
and aluminium dabbas (tiffin boxes) across the Mumbai region in Maharashtra.
They have a customer range of approximately 2 lakh people
and travel about 60-70 kms to deliver these lunch boxes to their customers. They
are not caters, but simple delivery men who are entrusted with the job to
deliver the right lunch box to the right customer but how would this be
possible with a large margin of over 2 lakh people? Let us find out a little
later.
Who Started Mumbai
Dabbawala?
During the late 1800’s, a large number of people were
migrating to Bombay in British India. Fast food canteens and restaurants were
not easily available in a yet developing city like Bombay and most of these people
would travel several kms to reach Bombay for their daily jobs.
Due to the rich diversity of these Indians, each had a very
different taste in food and would prefer their home-cooked meals. To make this
convenient for the working men, in 1890, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche formed a lunch
delivery service with a start-up of 100 men.
During its inception, it delivered only to a British officer
and a Parsi banker after which the business began to flourish. He unionized the
dabbawala’s and in 1956 it was registered as a charitable trust under the name
of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust.
How Do The Mumbai
Dabawalas Work?
These dabbawala’s are often spotted in Mumbai sporting a
white kurta and a Gandhi cap while carrying a few hundreds of dabba’s that are
carried either barefoot, bicycles, trains or loaded on a cart. How can they
possibly identify and deliver each dabba to the right address? Do the Mumbai
Dabawala’s commit mistakes?
Most of the dabbawala’s are 8th grade pass with a
very low level of literacy and many are unable to read a single English alphabet.
In this case, the most systematic method would be a colour coding system which
comprises of colour, numbers, symbols and alphabets.
An alphabet or a combination of alphabets is applied to the
resident pick up group from where the dabbwala is supposed to collect the dabba
in the first place. A symbol is assigned to the destination railway station that
the dabbawala would use for his transport. The destination group use a numeric
group and the destination address is given the Alpha-Numeric code.
- The dabbawala collect the dabba either from the workers home or from the dabba makers and begin their delivery by 10 a.m.
- After the collection of the dabbas, the dabbawalas of the same area take it to a sorting place mostly near the railway station where the dabbas are sorted in groups.
- They are then loaded into the train coaches according to the coding that distinguishes each dabba from another.
- At each railway station there are a few local dabbawalas who deliver them to the correct destination address as instructed by the coding system.
- The dabbas are collected after lunch or the next day and sent back to the delivering address in the same way.
Why Does Mumbai
Dabbawala Still Exist?
Mumbai, the commercial capital of India is one of the
busiest cities always teaming with people. Accompanying those million people
are large traffic jams and working men/ women who need to reach their office on
time.
Some people’s offices are located 30-40 kms away and to be there
on time they need to leave their home as early as 5 and 6 a.m. This makes the
preparation of food tedious since the home maker must start preparing the food
by 4:30 a.m.
Moreover, in this crowded city, carrying an additional lunch
box apart from their office bag/ laptop bags in a packed train becomes
treacherous for the person. To avoid this situation, the Mumbai dabbawala’s are
at their service delivering them hot food by 12:30 p.m, just in time for their
lunch.
An astonishing fact about the Mumbai Dabbawala’s is that
they claim a six-sigma accuracy level. This means that there is only one
mistake in every 16 million boxes delivered. There are several case studies
being conducted about the working of this efficient system and the precision of
each dabbawala committing to his duty. This system continues to surprise the
world.
The hard work of these dedicated Mumbai dabbawalas cannot go
unnoticed even in such a busy city. Even at a meagre salary of 8,000 rupees per
month, the Mumbai Dabbawala’s have proved to the world that discipline, determination, punctuality and
trust is the core strength of an organisations success. Salute to the munificent
Mumbai Dabbawalas!
Written by Jerusha Patel
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