Dabbawala – Tiffin Wala
The concept of Dabbawala was started in 1880. They have been honored by Six Sigma Certificate. BBC had picturised documentary on them. Due to their prompt process of service they had been invited for guest lecture from top business schools.
Dabbawala is a person who collects fresh food in lunch boxes from the homes, caterer and deliver it to business man, office worker, students, etc and return back the empty lunch boxes to the respective places. Trademark of dabbawala is white topi (Gandhi Topi).
The concept of dabbawala was started in India when India was under British rule. This service was introduced in 1880. In 1890, Mahadeo Bachche, started this service with only 100 men. In 1956, a charitable trust was registered in the name of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. The current president of the association is Raghunath Medge.
Dabbawala’s normally collects dabbas (lunch boxes) on bicycle and accumulate it in specific location such as railway station and thereafter it is distributed among the groups. The grouped boxes are put in the train coaches, with marking such as colors or symbols and address where it has to be delivered. At respective station, the dabbas are handed over to local dabbawala to deliver them at their destination. The empty lunch boxes are returned back to dabba owners.
More than 2,00,000 lunch boxes are collected everyday by approximately 5000 dabbawalas. Each dabbawalas get paid 5000/- to 6000/- rupees per month. Their service are so prompt that they even work on the days of severe weather.
They have been honored by Six Sigma Certificates. BBC had picturised documentary on them. Due to their prompt process of service they had been invited for guest lectures from top business schools. Hon. Prince Charles invited them for his marriage with Camilla Parker in 2005. They have now adopted modern information technology for booking such as sms and online bookings.
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