CASE STUDY The Dabbawalas of Mumbai*

The dabbawalas of Mumbai carry hot lunches from 1967, but was an informal guild for some 50 years
the homes of employees (customers) to their places before this.
of employment. The aluminum containers or"titfins There are two primary reasons why the titin
serve the dual purpose of keeping the food warm carrier operations started and succeeded in Mumbai.
and preventing it from splashing out during the tifin First, the Indian value system places great emphasis
carrier's rushed and jostling journey. A typical tiffin on home-cooked meals, served hot. The problem
carrier carries about 40 of these dabbas on a long, for roughly eight of ten white-collar workers in
out

unwieldy tray on his head as he moves speedily Mumbai is that they do not have time to go home
through busy streets and cramped trains. The tray for lunch. The tiflin carrier brings the security of an
and tiffins have a combined of more than 60
weight inexpensive, clean, tasty, and often still warm, home-
cooked meal. Restaurant meals cost five to fitteen
kg. For distances over 4 km, the carriers often use
times more than home-cooked food, and there is also
bicycles; when carrying more than 40 tiffins, the
carriers use handcarts. the chance of falling ill, as many public cateries lack
Each dabbawala is employed by one of the city's hygienic kitchens.
800 contractors (mukaddanms). The contractors and Second, Mumbai is the only city in India where
tiffin carriers both belong to the Mumbai Tiffin box the train traffic flows in the north-south direction and
Carriers Association. It was registered as a trust in the pedestrian traffic flows in the east west direction.

Ashok Kumar, Stephen T. Margulis, and Jaideep Motwani, and published in IMB
The case has becn developed by
Journal of Management. Reproduced with slight modification with permission.