The dabbawalas who once fed Mumbai now battle changing times

Mumbai’s famed dabbawalas, known globally for their near-flawless lunchbox delivery system, a staple of management studies on operational efficiency, have been dealt a significant blow from the work-from-home culture that began during the COVID pandemic, along with the rise of food-delivery platforms and cloud kitchens.

The strength of the dabbawala workforce has declined by around 40 per cent, falling to about 3,000 from nearly 5,000 before the pandemic, as many returned to their native villages and a significant number shifted to other occupations owing to reduced business, as per the Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association.

The network was heavily patronised since dabbawalas, mostly hailing from Maval region and other parts of Pune district like Junnar, Ambegaon, Rajgurunagar, Haveli and Mulshi talukas, have been delivering tiffin boxes on the dot irrespective of Mumbai’s traffic, congestion, heat and rains.

Such feats ensured the Forbes magazine highlighted the century-old system’s reliability and drew comparisons with Six Sigma quality standards in a 1998 article.

Long regarded as a symbol of the city’s unique logistics culture, dabbawalas have relied heavily on the suburban railway network to transport lunchboxes across vast distances with remarkable precision, the hustle bustle of their operations livening up railway platforms and luggage compartments of trains.

In 2003, they were part of international headlines when Prince Charles, now King Charles III, visited the city and interacted with members of the community, praising their efficiency and punctuality.

“Operations came to a complete halt during the COVID lockdown. Even after normalcy returned, customer numbers remain below pre-pandemic levels. The number of dabbawalas has come down from 5000 before the pandemic to around 3000 now. It had actually shrunk to 1500 during the pandemic,” Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association president Ramdas Karvande said.

“Many employees continue to work from home or attend offices only a few days a week. As a result, the number of lunchboxes transported daily has come down considerably,” Karvande said, citing the affect of hybrid and remote working arrangements on their traditional business model.

He, however, exuded confidence that the number of dabbawalas will grow within a year or two.

“A dabbawala typically serves 15 to 20 customers and charges a monthly fee for the delivery of a lunchbox from home to offices. The network functions through station-wise groups that coordinate collection and delivery operations. However, there is no formal registration system for workers,” he said.

According to the association, dabbawalas currently deliver more than 50,000 lunchboxes daily to offices.

Dabbawalas Subhash Talekar also cited the rise of food-delivery platforms and cloud kitchens for the dent in the network’s business, adding that the younger generation are opting for such mechanisms than waiting for delivery of home-cooked meals.

The association’s office bearer, Raghunath Mendge, said the service was at its peak towards the end of the last century, when the network had more than 5,000 dabbawalas before changing lifestyles and the easy availability of food began showing their effects.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, dabbawalas largely collected tiffins from the suburbs and extended suburbs such as Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Badlapur and the Belapur-Panvel belt for delivery to offices in south Mumbai, he pointed out.

The delivery process begins with dabbawalas collecting lunchboxes, each marked with an alphanumeric code for accurate sorting, from customers’ homes, mostly using bicycles, although some now use e-bikes and scooters, he said.

Mendge, whose father joined the profession in 1930, said when he entered the service in 1974, the monthly charge for delivering a lunchbox was just Rs 12. Today, the monthly fee ranges from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500, he added.

An individual dabbawala earns around Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 a month, depending on the volume of work undertaken, he said.

“Many customers still approach dabbawalas directly after noticing their distinctive attire, particularly the Gandhi cap. Nowadays, some customers also contact us through phone numbers available online or through security personnel in their housing societies,” he said.

The service, which started in 1890, will not stop, Mendge said confidently. The association said efforts were underway to attract new customers and adapt to changing work patterns to sustain the century-old service.