Dabbawala in action

A dabbawala (literally, one who carries a box, see Etymology), also spelled as dabbawalla or dabbawallah is a person in the Indian 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 (mostly in the suburbs), delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning back the empty boxes by using various modes of transport. "Tiffin" is an old-fashioned English word for a light lunch, and sometimes for the box it is carried in. For this reason, the dabbawalas are sometimes called Tiffin Wallahs. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 557 pixel Image in higher resolution (959 × 668 pixel, file size: 215 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Template:Dabbawala in action File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 557 pixel Image in higher resolution (959 × 668 pixel, file size: 215 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Template:Dabbawala in action File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not... , Bombay redirects here. ... For the Marilyn Manson single, see Lunchbox (single). ... White-collar workers perform tasks which are less laborious yet often more highly paid than blue-collar workers, who do manual work. ... For other uses, see Tiffin (disambiguation). ...

Etymology and historical roots

The word "Dabbawala" in Hindi when literally translated, means "one who carries a box". "Dabba" means a box (usually a cylindrical tin or aluminium container), while "wala" is a suffix, denoting a doer of the preceding word^[1]. The closest meaning of the Dabbawala in English would be the "lunch box delivery man". Though this profession seems to be simple, it is actually a highly specialized service in Mumbai which is over a century old and has become integral to the cultural life of this city.-1...

The concept of the dabbawala originated when India was under British rule. Many British people who came to the colony didn't like the local food, so a service was set up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home. Nowadays, Indian business men are the main customers for the dabbawalas, and the services provided are cooking as well as delivery. Anthem God Save The King-Emperor The British Indian Empire, 1909 Capital Calcutta (1858 - 1912) New Delhi (1912 - 1947) Language(s) Hindustani, English and many others Government Monarchy Emperor of India  - 1858-1901 Victoria¹  - 1901-1910 Edward VII  - 1910-1936 George V  - 1936 Edward VIII  - 1936-1947 George VI Viceroy... This article is about a type of political territory. ... Customers are waiting in front of a famous fashion shop for its grand opening in Hong Kong. ...

Background and the delivery chain

At 19,373 persons per km², Mumbai is India's most densely populated city with a huge flow of traffic. Because of this, lengthy commutes to workplaces are common, with many workers traveling by train. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... For other uses, see Train (disambiguation). ...

Instead of going home for lunch or paying for a meal in a café, many office workers have a cooked meal sent by a caterer who delivers it to them as well, essentially cooking and delivering the meal in lunch boxes and then having the lunch boxes collected and re-sent the next day. This is usually done for a monthly fee. The meal is cooked in the morning and sent in lunch boxes carried by dabbawalas, who have a complex association and hierarchy across the city. Lunch is an abbreviation of luncheon, meaning a midday meal. ... Discussing the War in a Paris Café, Illustrated London News 17 September 1870 Coffee shop redirects here. ... Cooking is the act of preparing food. ...

A collecting dabbawala, usually on bicycle, collects dabbas from homes or, more often, from the dabba makers (who actually cook the food). The dabbas have some sort of distingushing mark on them, such as a color or symbol. The dabbawala then takes them to a designated sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawalas sort (and sometimes bundle) the lunch boxes into groups. The grouped boxes are put in the coaches of trains, with markings to identify the destination of the box (usually there is a designated car for the boxes). The markings include the rail station to unload the boxes and the building address where the box has to be delivered. For other uses, see Bicycle (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Train (disambiguation). ... Passengers bustle around the typical grand edifice of Londons Broad Street Station in 1865. ...

At each station, boxes are handed over to a local dabbawala, who delivers them. The empty boxes, after lunch, are again collected and sent back to the respective houses.

The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust

This service was originated in 1880. Later, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche, a migrant from Maharashtra, started a lunch delivery service with about 100 men.^[2] In 1930, he informally attempted to unionize the dabbawallas. Later a charitable trust was registered in 1956 under the name of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. The commercial arm of this trust was registered in 1968 as Mumbai Tiffin Box Carriers Association. The present President of the association is Raghunath Medge. Nowadays, the service often includes cooking of foods in addition to the delivery. , Maharashtra (Marathi: महाराष्ट्र , IPA  , translation: Great Nation) is Indias third largest state in area and second largest in population after Uttar Pradesh. ...

Economic analysis

Everyone who works within this system is treated as an equal.^{[citation needed]} Regardless of a dabbawala's function, everyone gets paid about two to four thousand rupees per month (around 25-50 British pounds or 40-80 US dollars).^{[citation needed]} It has been suggested that History of the rupee be merged into this article or section. ... GBP redirects here. ... The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ...

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, there is only one mistake in every 16,000,000 deliveries and the system has registered a Six Sigma performance at 99.999999 rating.^{[citation needed]} The often-used six sigma symbol. ...

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). 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.^[3] For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... A television documentary is a documentary or a series of documentaries that are meant to be broadcasted on television. ... “Prince Charles” redirects here. ... A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in Business Administration. ...

The New York Times reported in 2007 that the 125 year old dabbawala industry continues to grow at a rate of 5-10% per year.^[4] The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Low-tech and lean

A dabba

Although the service remains essentially low-tech, with the barefoot delivery men as the prime movers, the dabbawalas have started to embrace modern information technology, and now allow booking for delivery through SMS. A web site, mydabbawala.com, has also been added to allow for on-line booking, in order to keep up with the times.^[5] An on-line poll on the web site ensures that customer feedback is given pride of place. The success of the system depends on teamwork and time management that would be the envy of a modern manager. Such is the dedication and commitment of the barely literate and barefoot delivery men (there are only a few delivery women) who form links in the extensive delivery chain, that there is no system of documentation at all. 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 (cap). The return on capital is ensured by monthly division of the earnings of each unit. Image File history File links Dabba, Oman File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Dabba, Oman File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Information and communication technology spending in 2005 Information Technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. ... For other uses, see SMS (disambiguation). ...

Uninterrupted services

The service is uninterrupted even on the days of extreme weather, such as Mumbai's characteristic monsoons. The local dabbawalas at the receiving and the sending ends are known to the customers personally, so that there is no question of lack of trust. Also, they are well accustomed to the local areas they cater to, which allows them to access any destination with ease. Occasionally, people communicate between home and work by putting messages inside the boxes. However, this was more common before the accessibility of instant telecommunications. Trends in natural disasters, Pascal Peduzzi (2004) Is climate change increasing the frequency of hazardous events? Environment Times UNEP/GRID-Arendal Extreme weather includes weather phenomena that are at the extremes of the historical distribution, especially severe or unseasonal weather. ... For other uses, see Monsoon (disambiguation). ... Copy of the original phone of Alexander Graham Bell at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris Telecommunication is the assisted transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ...

In literature

Story of dabbawallas have been referred to in many discussion studies and movies

Notes

References

• Karkaria, Bachi. "The Dabba Connection." [1]
• Blue Peter episode on Monday, 27 September 2004 (summer expedition report)

For other uses, see Blue Peter (disambiguation). ... is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Official Website of the Mumbai Dabbawalas
• Thakker, Pradip, Mumbai's amazing Dabbawalas, rediff.com, 11 November 2005
• Shekhar Gupta, Our computer is our head and our Gandhi cap is the cover to protect it from the sun or rain, Indian Express, Walk the Talk, NDTV 24x7.
• Hart, Jeremy (2006-03-19). "The Mumbai working lunch", The Independent Online, The Independent group, London. Retrieved on 2007-03-20. 
• "Indian lunchbox carriers to attend the Royal nuptials", Evening Standard (London), Associated Newspapers Ltd (2005-04-05). Retrieved on 2007-03-20.