COVID-19: Help pours in for Mumbai's dabbawalas, people donate bicycles

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Amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, Mumbai's dabbawalas are struggling to feed their families. In this time of crisis, Mumbaikars extended a helping hand and donated bicycles after an appeal from the Mumbai Dabbawala Association (MDA).

On Saturday, the dabbawala's association urged people to donate bicycles as they could not afford to pay the maintenance cost of their rusted bicycles which have been lying idle for six months now due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

After reading about their struggle, Bollywood producer Manish Mundra, who has produced films like 'Masaan' and 'Newton', pledged 100 bicycles for the dabbawalas. Taking to Twitter, Mundra said he is donating 100 bicycles and urged people to donate or contribute to get more bicycles for the dabbawala community.

After Mundra shared the news, netizens took to the comments section of the post and expressed their wish to help. One user said, "Bhaiya I want to donate one cycle from my side," while a second user wrote, "Tell me how and what help exactly do you need?" A third comment read, "Mumbai Dabbawallas don't worry your new cycles are coming."

Here's how tweeple reacted:

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Subhash Talekar, president of Mumbai Dabbawala Association, said he was flooded with phone calls. "So many people have come forward to help our dabbawalas. The community is really happy and is looking forward to start work now. Thanks to this, thousands of dabbawalas will now get help. We are all eager to start work soon and are now hoping to get permissions to ply on the trains too," he said.

Since the announcement of Unlock 1, the dabbawalas had written to the Central government demanding to start the city's local trains or allow dabbawalas into the essential services category. They dabbawala community also submitted a written request about the same on Saturday.

About 5,000 dabbawalas are facing survival issues due to the lockdown.

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