The Dabbawallas of Mumbai

Come rain or shine, the sight of the dabbawalla (tiffin delivery man) is a familiar one for most Mumbaikars. Performing the balancing act of carrying some twenty five to thirty dabbas each day, the dabbawalla caters to the dietary needs of over three lakh people in Mumbai. He makes up the chain of an amazing food delivery system, enabling some hundreds of starved office goers to enjoy home cooked cuisine. The dabbawallas make their way to the labyrinth of offices spread all over the city. Offering services from Virar to Churchgate on the western line, and from Kalyan to Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus on the central line, dabbawallas cover the length and breadth of the city of Mumbai.

The Day Begins. . .

The day of a dabbawalla starts early in the morning when he presents himself at the doorstep of his clients precisely at 9am to pick up the tiffins and then return to the scheduled station, which could be Andheri or Dadar, to sort out the dabbas and then deliver them to the hungry men at their workplaces. Dressed in their deccan attire of jabha, loose fitting pyjamas and the Gandhi topi, these men come mostly from villages in western Maharashtra. Faced with poverty, most of them are farmers who have left behind their families in the village and come to work in Mumbai to earn a livelihood. Boarding the train at 10.35 am, they reach the city by around noon, frantically looking for an empty space to place the tin cans of home cooked food before delivering them. The heavy and cumbersome tiffin boxes of the past, have now been replaced by hot cases which makes it easier for them to be carried around.

Colour-Coded Dabbas. . .

With thousands of dabbas being circulated all across the city, one often wonders whether a wrong dabba has reached a wrong office. Faced with such a question, a dabbawalla retorts "I have never misplaced a dabba". This is ensured by a unique system of coding followed by the dabbawallas. The codes are mostly in the form of alphabets and numbers. Sometimes it is just a dab of colour on the lid of the boxes - green for Nariman Point, red for Charni Road, which makes up for the identification.

Struggles and Stories. . . .
The dabbawallas face considerable harassment at the hands of policemen as well as municipality workers. With little or no education, the problem of harassment is all the more acute. Inspite of illiteracy, the system's success is astonishing, especially in view of the complexity of the work. Lack of employment opportunities has resulted in youth taking to this job. Few of them are graduates and some have high school qualifications. After delivering their dabba they wait for the lunch hour to get over in order to return the dabbas to their respective homes. Earning a paltry sum of some Rs. 3000 per month, they live in the slums and chawls of Mumbai.

History. . . .
The story of the dabbawallas started way back in 1890 under the British rule, when the gora sahibs, who could not eat the spicy food, asked the Parsis to prepare lunch and dinner for them. And thus dabbawallas came into existence. The rates which were a meagre Rs. 2.50 to Rs. 3.00 per month earlier has now gone up to Rs. 300. They offer two kinds of services: first and second class service. In the former, they pick up dabba even as late as eleven o 'clock and deliver the food piping hot. This costs some Rs.100 extra, whereas for the second class service, the families have to prepare the food latest by 9 in the morning.

Into the Future. . . .
The hard and tiring day of these dabbawallas comes to an end with some idle chat at the association office at Grant Road. They do not have the privilege of taking holidays, even if the city gets submerged during the rains. With no recognition from the government whatsoever, the dabbawallas are doing fine and will continue to withstand the waves of change, especially given their determination and fortitude.

Author: Sharmistha Chatterjee

Photographer: Uma Kadam