We have a new blogger on Discovering Mumbai. The ever inquisitive British expat blogger and columnist BombayJules. Recently she travelled all the way to Churchgate Station in south Mumbai to observe the
famous Dabbawalahs in action (Dabbawallas, Dabbawallahs, or Tiffin Wallahs).
Here’s what she has learned about the famous Tiffin delivery service of Mumbai!
For the
readers back home, a Dabbawala is a person whose sole job it is to collect home
cooked 'dabbas' - basically packed lunches - from the homes of office
workers and deliver them to said office workers via different modes of
transport. After the packed lunch - or tiffin - has been
consumed, the Dabbawala will re-collect the empty box and take it back home to
the person's residence. Each tiffin box usually contains two or three
containers - mostly carrying traditional Indian foods such as rice, veg curry,
chapattis and vegetables. No doubt with a fraction of the calories of a
Pret-a-Manger sandwich.
 |
| Dabbawala in his pristine white uniform |
Every day, about 5,000 semi-literate Dabbawalas deliver a staggering 175,000 - 200,000 tiffins to Mumbai's office workers, using a colour and code marking system to ensure faultless delivery (codings, that would apparently baffle the most advanced of cryptographers). In fact, Harvard has made a study of this incredible delivery system due to the fact that mistakes only occur at a rate of one in six million - all done without the use of IT and cell phones. Beat that Tescos! And not only has our very own Prince Charles and Richard Branson been to meet the Dabbawalas of Mumbai, but back in 2004, the President of the Tiffin Suppliers Association addressed a group of 50 management gurus on the finer points of logistics management. Further, Forbes also awarded it a six sigma performance rating! (OK I don't know what that is but it sounds impressive huh?).
There are many persons in the dabba chain between home and office - and
the deliveries are made using a kind of relay system: A Dabbawala will collect
around 30 lunch boxes at around 9-10am - he will then distribute these to other
Dabbawalas at the train station dependent upon the final destination of the
office worker. On the train journey into the city, each carrier can transport
up to 40 packages on a long tray that they balance on their heads. At the main
terminus at the other end (in our case, Churchgate station but also commonly
Mahalaxmi or Victoria Terminus), the dabbawalas stream off the train at around
11.30 am where they re-group outside the station to organise the onward journey
of the lunches. The onward journey is usually by cart, bicycle or on foot
through the heavy traffic. An amazing spectacle! The journey is then reversed
upon collection of the empty tiffin boxes.
 |
| Dabbas
being collected and sorted for their onward journeys at Churchgate Station. We got told off by the police for trying to take pictures inside the station so we couldn't get any good shots of the Dabbawalas streaming off the train. |
Now you may well ask yourself (as I did), why on earth these office
workers don't just take their own packed lunch into work - as is the norm in
the rest of the world. Well having done a little bit of research on this, I can
tell you the following:
Genuine, cheap and hygienic home cooked food guaranteed: For the majority of Mumbai workers,
restaurants are way too expensive to be a daily solution. On the streets,
numerous outside stalls sell for a few rupees different types of snacks that
you have to eat standing on the pavement in the middle of the crowd and
sanitary cooking conditions are not guaranteed!
Food diversity of Indian people: With the diversity of Indian eating habits, it is very difficult
to answer the specific need of each employee in a same place. “Veg” and “non
veg” are usually the only two options that canteens are able to give, without
taking care of all the different regime between religion, castes or geographic
origin. By delivering to each employee his tiffin filled with food prepared at
his home, dabbawalas solve the problem.
Time shortages: Many
Indian workers have to leave very early in the morning to make their long
commute to work - before 7am at least. It is enough that the individual or the
Indian housewife has to get up, get their breakfast ready and send the kids off
to school. The Dabbawala service affords wives a couple more hours to prepare
their husband's lunch - cooking it and packing it before it is picked up from
their home at between 9am and 10am. Not only that, but on the extremely crowded
trains of Mumbai, it means that workers can move unhindered - with both hands
free to fight for precious space.
Dabbawala as postman: In the days before mobile phones, housewives could send messages to
their husbands in the tiffin package. And messages could be sent back from the
husband upon collection of the empty box. (Probably 'do this, do that!' rather
than 'I love you'...!).
Dabbawala as status symbol: For those households who cannot afford servants, having a
Dabbawala deliver your lunch is seen as the first step to having staff. After
all, the service is a mere few rupees a day - and is therefore a service that
doesn't break the bank of ordinary workers. Especially in Mumbai where life is
already so costly for middle class people. The service generally costs about
450 Rs a month (GBP 5.50 or $8) and the ingredients themselves
- very little.
So lesson over, here are more pictures!
 |
| With re-distribution of the tiffins organised outside the terminal, they fill the cart and head off to nearby offices |
 |
| Traditional tiffin boxes... |
 |
| .....a bit fancier and more colourful these days... |
 |
| Each tray can hold up to 40 lunches - try balancing that lot on your head! |
 |
| These guys have three lots of trays - about 120 lunches which they will push through the Mumbai traffic on carts. Dabbawalas earn just 4,000 to 5,000 Rs a month (GBP 50 / $80) |
 |
| Biting off more than he can chew? |
 |
| Competing with the traffic for space |
 |
| The code (http://www.cookatease.com/) |
BombayJules is a British Expat who has been living in Mumbai with her husband, for almost a year. Since moving to Mumbai she has been involved with an NGO which deals with
malnutrition in babies and young children. Through her blog, she tries to document her experiences of
Mumbai and write about things that might be of interest to other expats
as well as the folks back home. She also writes about her travel in India. She feels truly blessed to be able to have this
wonderful time in India.
You can follow BombayJules's blog here
No comments:
Post a Comment