Dabbawalas in Mumbai feed around 20,000 people every day by delivering home-cooked meals to businesses and workplaces. Pandemic has caused a slew of issues for the city's dabbawalas, including transportation. The dabbawala network operates as a chain structure, with workers divided into branches. Each branch congregates at a specific train station, from which they cycle or walk to nearby offices for delivery. Each tiffin is neatly labelled with an area code and an office number, allowing these architects to efficiently transport the meals.
Shantaram Shivaji Gargote, on the other hand, is concerned today. The 37-year-old Kalyan lunchbox carrier has been in the business for 21 years, but has never seen it ebb as much as it has in the last year. "In 1920, my grandfather joined the 'Dabbawalas,' and I followed in his footsteps at a young age. We've gone from 5,000 to just over 100 dabbawalas in the organisation. Our livelihoods have been destroyed by the Covid-19 outbreak... "I was able to get a smartphone this month so that my children could attend online school," he stated.
Gargote isn't the only one. The majority of the workforce appears demoralised and defeated. Covid-19 infected Sakaram Rahani, 73, who has been delivering meals for the past 55 years. As the family's main breadwinner, he had little choice but to borrow huge sums of money for therapy and to meet his family's basic requirements. "Every penny I earn now goes toward repaying my debts and paying my rent." I hardly get enough food on the table for my family. How long can I survive on Rs 4,000 a month?, he wonders. The pandemic has caused a slew of issues for the city's dabbawalas, including transportation.
The Dabbawala network operates as a chain structure, with workers divided into branches. Each branch congregates at a specific train station, from which they cycle or walk to nearby offices for delivery. Each tiffin is neatly labelled with an area code and an office number, allowing these architects to efficiently transport the meals. Local trains were stopped down for Dabbawalas during the initial wave of the pandemic, making it impossible for them to reach their specified assembly spot. While the railway system was eventually inaugurated, Rahani claims that it operated for several months on a QR-code system. "I didn't have a smartphone," the seasoned Dabbawalas lamented, "much alone understanding how to handle a QR-code and its scanning."
The Mumbai Dabbawala Association provided financial support to its workers during the initial lockdown, but no tangible actions have been taken since then. Rs 1,500 was put in the accounts of all Dabbawalas in the association during the first lockdown. NGOs and crowd-funded campaigns helped raise finances, offer masks and sanitizers, and ration to the Dabbawalas during the Covid-19 issue, and the association is tremendously thankful. Despite the fact that trains were running again between October and March 2021, only 200-300 Dabbawalas returned to the city. As a result of the second wave, trains have been stopped down once more. "The situation appears bleak, and workers are making far less money than they were previously," Sawant added.
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