President & Secretary

A dabbawala, (Hindi: dabba - (Lunch) Box, wala -

an appelation for One who carries) sometimes
spelled dabbawalla or dabbawallah, is a person in
Mumbai (Bombay), India, whose job is carrying
and delivering freshly made food from home in
lunch boxes to office workers. Tiffin is an old-
fashioned English word for a light lunch, and
sometimes for the box it is carried in. Dabbawalas
are sometimes called tiffin-wallas.
Though the work sounds simple, it is actually a
highly specialized trade that is over a century old
and which has become integral to Mumbai's
culture.
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 businessmen are the main customers for
the dabbawalas, and the service includes cooking
as well as delivery.

The word "Dabbawala" can be translated as "box-

carrier" or "lunchpail-man". In Hindi, "dabba"
means a box (usually an cylindrical aluminium
container), while "wala" means someone in a
trade involving the preceding term.
At 19,373 persons per square kilometer, 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.

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.

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 (most
dabbawalas are illiterate).

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.
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.

Economic analysis
Everyone who works within this system is treated
as an equal. Regardless of a dabbawala's function,
everyone gets paid about 2-4,000 rupees per
month (around 25-50 British pounds).

More than 175,000-200,000 lunches get moved

every day by an estimated 4,500-5,000
dabbawalas, all with an extremely small nominal
fee and with utmost punctuality. According to a
recent survey, there is only one mistake in every
6,000,000 deliveries. The American business
magazine Forbes gave a Six Sigma performance
rating for the precision of dabbawalas.

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, the
success of the dabbawala trade has involved no
modern technology. The main reason for their
popularity could be the Indian people's aversion
to fast food outlets and their love of home-made
food.

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 on chits inside the boxes. Of course,
this was before the telecommunications
revolution.
 Outside Mumbai
In general, the Chinese prefer hot meals over cold
ones. From the end of the Second Sino-Japanese
War and the upcoming civil war, a great number
of people migrated from China to Hong Kong.
Tiffin carriers similar to their Mumbai conterparts
began to emerge. This kind of business existed
until the 1970s when people were richer. These
tiffin boxes were coloured with flowers and other
devices to be delivered to the factory workers.
In many other Asian countries, office workers and
school children also bring their own lunch boxes.
However, without such a delivery system, a
company or a school may install heaters to reheat
the lunch boxes. A large steam heater may reheat
hundreds or even more lunch boxes at a time. A
worker or a student also has to bring home his/her
lunch box. As more and more people choose to
visit a restaurant or cafeteria, the reheating
service is now in decline.

Unlike microwave oven reheating which is quick

and lower in temperature, foods slowly reheated
by steam for a couple of hours are usually not as
tasty as freshly made ones. Green leaf
vegetables, a vital ingredient of Chinese cuisine,
do not survive reheating well. Since a nuclear
family's working housewife may prepare the next
day's lunch at dinner, the boxed lunch, placed in a
refrigerator over night, may contain dishes that
are very similar to that family's last meal.
Therefore, people developed special cooking tips
to make their boxed lunch tasty after reheating.

Virgin Chairman With Dabbawalas

With Prince Charles

Coding System
VLP : Vile Parle (suburb in
Mumbai)
9EX12 : Code for Dabbawalas at Destination
EX : Express Towers (building name)
12 : Floor no.
E : Code for Dabbawala at residential station
3 : Code for destination
Station eg. Churchgate
Station (Nariman Point)
Let us now look at an example of these codes on the
tiffins to better understand the system and what it all
denotes:

APPROACH
DISCIPLINES :

• No Alcohol Drinking during business hours

• Wearing White Cap during business hours
• Carry Identity Cards
WOMEN:

• Mrs. Bhikhubai of Kandivali

• Mrs. Anandibai of Borivali
• Mrs. Parvatabai of Karale (Ghatkopar)
• Mrs. Laxmibai Bagade of Santa Cruz
LATEST MARKETING STRATEGY:
Marketing pamphlets in the “Dabba”

Error Rate : 1 in 16 million transactions

Six Sigma performance (99.999999)
Technological Backup : Nil.
Cost of service - Rs. 300/month ($ 6.00/month)
Standard price for all (Weight, Distance, Space)

“No strike” record as each one a share holder

Earnings -3000 to 4000 p.m. per dabbawala.

.
 The Flow Logic

Grant Road
(12)
Churchgate
(1-10)
Lower Parel
(14)
2
3
7
4
5
6

Zones for destination Distribution

10:34-11:20 am
(Andheri Stn.)

• This time period is actually the journey time. The

dabbawalas load the wooden crates filled with
tiffins onto the luggage or goods compartment
in the train. Generally, they choose to occupy
the last compartment of the train.
11:20 – 12:30 pm
(Church Gate Station)

• At this stage, the unloading takes place at the

destination station.
Re-arrangement of tiffins takes place as per the
destination area and destination building.

In particular areas with high density of customers

(Nariman Pt.,Fort , CST), a special crate is dedicated
to the area. This crate carries 150 tiffins and is
driven by 3-4 dabbawalas!

1:15 – 2:00 pm ( At All Destination

Stations)

Here on begins the collection process where the

dabbawalas have to pick up the tiffins from the
offices where they had delivered almost an hour ago.

2:00 – 2:30 pm (At Destination Station)

dabbawalla’s meet for the segregation as per the

destination The suburb.
2:48 – 3:30 pm

• The return journey by train where the group

finally meets up after the day’s routine of
dispatching and collecting from various
destination offices
• Usually, since it is more of a pleasant journey
compared to the earlier part of the day, the
dabbawalas lighten up the moment with merry
making, joking around and singing.
3:30 – 4:00 pm
( The Origin Station)
• This is the stage where the final sorting and
dispatch takes place. The group meets up at
origin station and they finally sort out the tiffins
as per the origin area
 Some Achievements

• World record in best time management.

•
• Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World Records”.

• Registered with Ripley's “ believe it or not”.