Dabbawalas in Mumbai to go digital post Covid-19

Ration kit distribution underway at Dadar on Sunday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

The city's dabbawalas, who suspend their peripatetic work life on Sundays as it is a holiday, gathered at a Dadar venue early afternoon yesterday. The dabbawalas, whose enviably efficient delivery system has caught the global imagination, were given ration kits at a distribution drive, as they have faced a very tough two years during the Coronavirus-induced lockdown. "Our work was directly hit during the shutdown and then slowdown. Both educational institutes and workplaces, the major part of our service, were shut. In addition, public transport, which we depend on, also closed early on. It was a hard blow for us," said one of them.

The men in white with their trademark Gandhi caps said, as they awaited the ration kits, "We are farmers too. Our fathers were farmers, most of us have fields in Maharashtra. Several of us cultivated rice to bring in some money during the bleak times." Today, they claimed, "work is back but nowhere near earlier levels. We delivered 90-odd dabbas on a work day earlier, now it is approximately 25-30."

The way out now is to re-invent and re-imagine, "so that we are not caught like this ever again," said Ullas Muke, president of Mumbai Dabbawala Association who was one of the spearheads coordinating the ration kits distribution drive. Muke said, "I want to tell people: call us, we are ready to start delivering dabbas. Majority of the people are still unaware that this service has re-started."

He added, "We have to reinvent to keep up with a new way of life now. Post-COVID Mumbai must say: welcome to the digital dabbawala. We will soon have an app that is currently under construction, from which customers can directly reach us. We have already opened a dry fruits store in Andheri on February 22, for retail. We are now going to open a centralised kitchen in Goregaon which will take food orders, which will then be delivered."

Dabbawala Shankar Dumal said, "Several dabbawalas had to repay debts. More workplaces are going to start by March 1, so I do hope the service now gathers serious steam and starts rolling." Ramesh More, former police inspector who helped in the distribution drive, said, "The task now is to plan and prepare for the future. The dry fruits store is one initiative. The dabbawalas will also have an app like food aggregators do. The centralised kitchen is another step ahead in tune with the times. We have to keep the dabbawalla tradition going but tweak it to our times."

He claimed they are harnessing the system's latent strengths, mobility and knowledge of the city into new age modes of work. "We may see the children of dabbawalas opt for other work, breaking away from dabba delivery. The present generation also broke away from farming, the future may from dabba delivery," stated More.

The dabbawalas said, "We were certainly touched, as individuals too have struggled through this phase. We need to reinvent as work may open but the hybrid mode, working at home and office, is here to stay in the new normal." Meanwhile NGO United Way, Mumbai said the distribution drive, with partners HSBC, was held at different Mumbai locations.