Dabbawalla Mahadeo Havaji Bachche

Career : Mahadeo Havaji Bachche (Mahadeo), a migrant from North Maharashtra, started the now famous dabbawalla lunch delivery service. For his enterprise, Mahadeo recruited youth from the villages neighboring Mumbai, who were involved in agricultural work. They were willing to come as the income they got from agriculture was not enough to support their large families, and they had no education or skills to get work in the city. The service started with about 100 Dabbawalas and cost the client Rs.2 a month. The first dabbawalla picks up the tiffin from home and takes it to the nearest railway station. The second dabbawalla sorts out the dabbas at the railway station according to destination and puts them in the luggage carriage. The third one travels with the dabbas to the railway stations nearest to the destinations. The fourth one picks up dabbas from the railway station and drops them of at the offices. The process is reversed in the evenings. The concept, however, originated during the British rule as the English officers did not like the local food and asked bearers to bring their lunch from home. Mumbai now has an estimated 5,000 tiffin carriers -dabbawallas delivering about 175,000 lunch boxes every day. The dabbawalla service was originated in 1880. In 1890, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche, started a lunch delivery service with about 100 men.[2] In 1930, he informally attempted to unionize the dabbawallas. Later a charitable trust was registered in 1956 under the name of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. The commercial arm of this trust was registered in 1968 as Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier's Association. Courtesy of flikr.com