Unsung Heroes the Dabbawallahs!

Recent past, it is very difficult for me to sit through a movie, therefore, mostly watch it in pieces, but there are some exception as last week I have seen ‘Stanley ka Dabba’ in one go. Liked it and wonder if Amol Gupte completed the movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’ then what would have happened. He knows how to narrate a story and there are only a few who can do this. Anyhow, my topic is nowhere related with the movie but with the ‘Dabba’, a container. Strange, we had so many types of ‘Dabbas’ yet when we think about it, only thing comes to our mind is the ‘Dabba’ that’s full of food, a Tiffin box.  Last time I wrote about the fisherwoman of Mumbai, because I found them unique and definitely different from other fisherwomen whom I met in different cities in different states or countries and in the different fish markets. Today, once more I am going back to the city, where I learned how to fight and then how to survived by conquering every fight I fought, it is none other than Mumbai. The community, rather call them the service provider, about whom I am going to write is the people who provided a unique service with ease and it would be impossible for us even if we are equipped with all modern equipment. They are the ‘Dabbawallahs’ of Mumbai. White pajama, white kurta and the topi clad simple looking guys can give an IIM grad run for his money. They are special so they have a documentary made on them by the BBC, they invited by Prince Charles in his wedding, they also invited as guest lecturer for many prestigious Business schools over the world and they found there name in Forbes Magazine too. There is some fact on the famous yet ordinary “Dabbawallahs” of Mumbai.

Dabbawallah; literally meaning "person with a box", is a person in India, most commonly found in the city of Mumbai, who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshly cooked food in lunch boxes from the residences of the office workers, delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning the empty boxes back to the customer's residence by using various modes of transport.

The concept of the dabbawala originated when India was under British rule. Many British people who came to the colony did not like the local food, so a service was set up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home.  Each dabbawala, regardless of role, gets paid about two to four thousand rupees per month. In 2002, Forbes Magazine found its reliability to be that of a six sigma standard.

More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunch boxes get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas, all with an extremely small nominal fee and with utmost punctuality. According to a recent survey, they make less than one mistake in every 6 million deliveries.

A simple colour coding system doubles as an ID system for the destination and recipient. There are no multiple elaborate layers of management either — just three layers. Each dabbawala is also required to contribute a minimum capital in kind, in the form of two bicycles, a wooden crate for the tiffins, white cotton kurta-pyjamas, and the white trademark Gandhi topi. The return on capital is ensured by monthly division of the earnings of each unit.

The service is almost always uninterrupted, even on the days of severe weather such as monsoons. The local dabbawalas and population know each other well, and often form bonds of trust. Dabbawalas are generally well accustomed to the local areas they cater to, and use shortcuts and other low profile routes to deliver their goods on time. Occasionally, people communicate between home and work by putting messages inside the boxes.

The BBC has produced a documentary on dabbawalas, and Prince Charles, during his visit to India, visited them, he had to fit in with their schedule, since their timing was too precise to permit any flexibility, Prince Charles also invited them to his wedding with Camilla Parker Bowles in London on 9 April 2005. Owing to the tremendous publicity, some of the dabbawalas were invited to give guest lectures in top business schools of India, which is very unusual. Most remarkably in the eyes of many Westerners, the success of the dabbawala trade has involved no advanced technology

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