Even when Mumbai is not fully awake, some people in white caps and kurtas reach the railway stations on bicycles carrying stacks of tiffins stacked high. They board a train, cross the city and then deliver hot home-cooked food to their offices on foot or by bicycle. These are the Dabbawalas of Mumbai – a system that Harvard Business School described as a masterclass in low-cost logistics and which the then Prince Charles himself visited Mumbai in 2003. But today these box vendors are fighting for survival. The Dabbawala system originated in the late 19th century, when Bombay (now Mumbai) was expanding rapidly during the British Raj. Office going people wanted home-cooked food. According to the report of BBC World, in 1890, Mahadev Bachche gave it a systematic form with 100 workers. Gradually this system became so accurate that thousands of tiffins started reaching the right address every day without any app or GPS. At its peak, 4,500 dabbawalas delivered more than 50,000 tiffins daily. Then Corona came and everything changed. Offices closed, work from home started and the need for tiffin suddenly ended. The report quoted Kiran Gawande, secretary of Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association, as saying, ‘Since the lockdown, many people go to office only 2-3 days a week. This had a big impact on the dabbawalas. The number which was 4,500 in 2018 has now come down to 1,500. The condition of those who are left is also not good. Balu Shinde remained a dabbawala for 20 years. Used to deliver 15-20 tiffins daily. Used to earn Rs 20,000 every month. By the end of 2020, only two customers remained. Now he drives an auto. Those who survive are doing two jobs each. The association is now planning for shift based work. But President Ramdas Karwande says, ‘Right now it is going on, but we cannot say what will happen next.’ These people are still seen carrying steel tiffins in Mumbai trains every morning. This is by keeping alive a tradition which was once a symbol of the pace of this city, but is now being left behind at the same pace. Swiggy-Zomato, cloud kitchen and inflation increased the challenge for the Dabbawalas. The Dabbawala used to deliver home food for only Rs 2,000 per month. Now food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato are providing everything from biryani to burgers at a single touch of the screen. Meanwhile, the emerging cloud kitchen has made the competition tough. As a result, the once monopolistic system of rule is shrinking. Baban Kadam, who has been a Dabba seller for 35 years, says, ‘In today’s inflation, the new generation will not come to this job. Everyone wants a better job or business.
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The existence of Dabbawalas, the lifeline of Mumbai, is in danger: Harvard had once described it as a masterclass of logistics, Prince Charles himself had come to see it.
