CH-1 INTRODUCTION

A dabbawala; also spelled as dabbawalla or dabbawallah; is a person in India, most

commonly in Mumbai, who collects freshly cooked food in lunch boxes from the residences
of mostly-suburban office workers, delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning
the empty boxes back to the customer's residence by using various modes of transport. Tiffin"
is an Anglo-Indian word, derived from obsolete English slang "tiffin" (to sip) for a light lunch
or afternoon snack, and sometimes, by extension, for the box it is carried in. For this reason,
the dabbawalas are sometimes called tiffin wallahs.

1.1 ETYMOLOGY AND HISTORICAL ROOTS

The word "dabbawala" in Hindi when literally translated, means "one who carries a box".
"Dabba" means a box (usually a cylindrical tin or aluminum container), while "wala" is a
suffix, denoting a doer or holder of the preceding word.
The closest meaning of the dabbawala in English would be the "lunch box delivery man".
Though this profession seems to be simple, it is actually a highly specialized service in
Mumbai which is over a century old and has become integral to the cultural life of Mumbai
city. The concept of the dabbawala originated when India was under British rule. Many
British people who came to the colony did not like the local food, so a service was set up to
bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home. Nowadays, although
Indian business persons are the main customers for the dabbbawala , increasingly affluent
families employ them instead for lunch delivery to their school-aged children. The service
provided usually consists of delivery of home-made food, or sometimes food ordered from a
restaurant.

1.2 LOW-TECH AND LEAN

Dabbawala in action although the service remains essentially low-tech, the success of the system
depends on teamwork and time management that would be the envy of a modern manager. Such is the
dedication and commitment of the barely literate and barefoot delivery men who form links in the
extensive delivery, that there is no system of documentation at all. A simple colour coding system
doubles as an ID system for the destination and recipient. There are no multiple elaborate layers of
management either just three layers
Uninterrupted services: The service is uninterrupted even on the days of extreme weather, such as
Mumbai's characteristic monsoons. The local dabbawalas at the receiving and the sending ends are

known to the customers personally, so that there is no question of lack of trust. Also, they are well
accustomed to the local areas they cater to, which allows them to access any destination with ease.
Occasionally, people communicate between home and work by putting messages inside the boxes.
However, this was usually before the accessibility of instant telecommunications.

1.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF A DABAWALLA HARD WORKING

A dabbawala lifts wooden crate containing dabbas weighting from 80kg to 100kg.
Honest: They have shown their honesty for over 125 years.
Reliable: They deliver lunch Dabbas by 12:30PM every day they are always on time .They
understand the true value of time.
Low salary: A Dabbawala may work for a salary starting from Rs.5000/- onwards. so it costs
effective to employ a Dabbawala.
Full knowledge of Mumbai: They know the in &out of Mumbai.

1. CHARACTERISTICS OF A DABAWALLA HARD WORKING

A dabbawala lifts wooden crate containing dabbas weighting from 80kg to 100kg.
Honest: They have shown their honesty for over 125 years.
Reliable: They deliver lunch Dabbas by 12:30PM every day they are always on time .They
understand the true value of time.
Low salary: A Dabbawala may work for a salary starting from Rs.5000/- onwards. so it costs
effective to employ a Dabbawala.
Full knowledge of Mumbai: They know the in &out of Mumbai.
2.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A DABAWALLA HARD WORKING

A dabbawala lifts wooden crate containing dabbas weighting from 80kg to 100kg.
Honest: They have shown their honesty for over 125 years.
Reliable: They deliver lunch Dabbas by 12:30PM every day they are always on time .They
understand the true value of time.

Low salary: A Dabbawala may work for a salary starting from Rs.5000/- onwards. so it costs
effective to employ a Dabbawala.
Full knowledge of Mumbai: They know the in &out of Mumbai.

1.4 TOP 10 REASONS FOR USING DABBAWALA SERVICE

1. Homemade food is best for health and because health is wealth. Outside junk foods may
take peoples life and makes them sick. Homemade keeps peoples doctor bill down and there
are fewer absences from offices due to poor health. In fact bad food is the reason 1 of all the
diseases.
2. Homemade food is cheaper. When people use Dabbawalas services to deliver their home
cooked to their office they actually saving their hard earned pennies. The delivery charge of
Rs.250-300 per month is very nominal and reasonable. Its simple math.
3. Do you not love your mother or wife and like to eat food made by her?
4. even if there is no one at home to cook food for people. Dabbawllas can deliver them good
quality home like lunch through many restaurants. Dabbawllas have quality and best quality
food is prepared which is delivered at their office or home through Dabbawala channel.
5. Safety-the local train of Mumbai are always much crowed and it is very tough to take even
small luggage during peak times. There are instances where the persons hand got hurt or
broken and ones belongings destroyed while traveling during peak time. People leave from
their home at about 8-9 PM which is peak time and its not possible to carry Tiffin during this
time and even the food is not ready by this time. By using this services people are getting hot
food safely deliver in their office.
6. Dabawalls give reliable service and their performance and accuracy match six sigma
standards.
7. Dabbawalas never go on strike.
8. By taking this services people are providing direct employment to 5000+ Dabbawalas and
many of their dependent families.
9. Dabbawallas are an icon in their own sense and famous world over for their efficiency and
by taking this services people are being part of Indias image building.

10. Dabbawallas are from the remote villages of Maharashtra and mostly uneducated. They
regularly organize bhajan and kirtans and spread the essence of Marathi culture, good will
and one ness of India. Being a part of dabbawalas you are actually nurturing Marathi culture.

1.5 THE WORKING OF SYSTEM WITH EXAMPLES

What most symbolizes Mumbai? Gateway of India, marine drive, local train, chats, street
shopping, MUMBAI DABBAWALAS.
Mumbai dabbawaals the doughty little man in distinctive white Gandhi cap who delivers
thousands of hungry lunches to offices goers every afternoon. The dabbawals gets his name
from the dabba the aluminum container fitted one above the other held in place by a wire grip
and lowered into an outer tin case which serve the double purpose of keeping the food warm
and preventing it from splashing out during the dabbawalas rushed and jostling journey.
He carries about 39 of these dabbas on an unwieldy long tray a combined weight of more
than 50 kilograms on his head as he moves speedily through sweaty miles and cramped
trains. His world is one of rush run propelled only by a single thought: whatever happens
gets the lunches delivered on time.
The fact that makes Mumbais dabbawalas system unique and in credible is the complexity of
the task and the simplicity of its operation. It is not set up where an individual man delivers
one or even five lunches. It is a gargantuan service in which some 2000 men carry over a
hundred thousand dabbas every day across the citys 60 kilometer sprawl in an inter-woven
relay with each dabbas changing hands at least four times. Yet for all its intricacy and size it
is unerringly run by a group of simple.illiterate,one time peasants using nothing more than a
handful of symbols crudely painted on lunch boxes that and their own intuition and team
work. Eight out of ten white collar workers in Mumbai live too far from their office to go
home for lunch. A restaurant meal cost five to fifteens times more than home food. Them the
dabbawalas brings the security of a cheap, clean, tasty.and often still warm, home cooked
meal.
1. EXAMPLE
The dabba of ram mohile a typist with Mumbai Municipal Corporation on its daily adventure
from kitchen to office canteen. Mrs...mohile starts cooking at 7 a.m. to prepare her husbands
mutton curry, rice, vegetablesand chapatti. She packes them in the dabba. The outer case of

mobiles dabba is marked with black swastika a red dot a yellow stroke. Each symbol marks a
different stage of the dabbas odyssey from mohiles flat to his office and back. The
dabbawalas reads the hieroglyphics like a sentence. But as one man on the beat said we often
recognize a dabba by its feel like we would a familiar slipper. Mohiles dabbawalas knocks
precisely at 10 and he isnt wearing a watch. He grabs the dabba from mrs. Mohile and
sprints down the three flights. His daily beat covers 35 boxes spread over 20 square
kilometers. Each box has different marking as each is bound for different destinations. At
exactly 10.20 he has a rendezvous with dabbawalas no.2 who takes over all the swastikamarked boxes he has collected from other couriers, pedals off to the suburban rail head of
dadar. Dabbawalas no.1 continues picking up dabbas meant for other pick-up men. At dadar
hundreds of dabbas have been deposited by different collectors. From them dabbawalla no.3
swiftly and unerringly picks out all the ones with a red dot mohiles included. He loads his
consignment on a tray an unwieldy wooden crate 2.5 meters long and less than a meter
wide just the right size for 39 dabbas to fit snugly in rows of three. He heaven the tray on his
head and runs to the platform just as the train clacks in. Within the two-minute halt he must
elbow his way in through the narrow compartment doorway with his heavy head load along
with some 25 office bound commuters and half-dozen other dabbawallas all in as great a
hurry as himself. Bombay alone can sustain a dabbawalla network of this size and complexity
because it alone among Indian cities has a quick efficient and far-flung suburban railway
service. Mohiles dabba is now one of thousand riding the train from all over the suburbs but
the yellow stroke on its lid tells its destination: Victoria terminus. Different marks on other
dabbas tell the career at which stations an route he must pass them on to other waiting links in
the cross network. At victoria terminus the hub of commercial Mumbai mohiles dabba enters
the last phase of its journey. Dabbawalla no.4 waiting on the platform picks it out together
with other boxes marked with his symbol the white cross. The black circle on mohiles case
indicates its exact destination: the BMC building. By 12:30 he has carried his create four
flights of stairs and left mohiles lunch-box along with some 20 others in a corner of the
canteen. mohile coming in at 1 p.m. will recognize his dabba from his name on an attached
tag. Mohile pays only RS.35 a month for this service. Rates vary the difference depending not
on the distance from the house to the offices but on the distance the dabbawalla has to walk to
and from the nearest suburban station. However rarely is the fee more than Rs.50.

2. EXAMPLE
With the sheer size of the operation and the nerve-racking rush surely the dabbas get mixed
up. In a country with rigid food taboos this could be disastrous. Krishna a staunch vegetarian
south Indian Brahmin recalls how he opened his dabba one day hoping to see fluffy snow
white rice and instead found half a fried fish staring back at him. I couldnt look at food for
a week without that wretched fish head swimming up before for eyes: he remembers with a
shudder. But such instances are rare. Not so infrequent is the loss of dabbas about 10to15
every day. Some have merely gone astray and are soon traced. But some are stolen. In this
case the owner is paid back half the price of a new lunch pail. In a dabbawllas tray a
Brahmins rice jostles along with a low-caste chapatti, a Hindus vegetable curry with a
Muslims mutton korma thus in a way the dabbed system dissolves the barriers of
class,casteand community which havent been entirely demolished from Indian society.
3. Example
The man who carries dabba is not his own master. He is the servant employed by one of
the citys 635 macadams or contractors, ex- dabbawallas themselves or even still plying the
beat. It is they who orchestrate the whole system. They in turn are answerable to their guild
the Bombay Tiffin box Suppliers Association. Apart from the daily hardship the dabbawalla is
exposed to constant hazards a slip from the doorway of a crowded, speeded train, juggernaut
buses elbowing his fragile bicycle into the gutter in a bid to prove that might is right a car not
cross the road too fast with his cumbersome head load. Some month ago a dabbawalla
waiting on his bicycle at a traffic light was hurled off the road by a lorry gone berserk and
was smashed to death. Yet even in such extreme situation his quota of dabba was delivered.
News travels fast on the network. The mukadam got to hear of the accident within minutes
and contracted the secretary of the Association(who patrols the city for just this kind of
emergency)asked him to look after the police formalities collected the dead mans dabbas and
being familiar with the symbols got them to their destination-just 30 minute late. The job
never a cushy one gets even worse during the citys notorious monsoon when rains lash the
metropolis for days without let-up ,flooding railway tracks, paralyzing the train-and thus the
dabbawallas. A contractor proudly tells of how hisboyethink nothing of getting down on the
flooded tracks and walking a few extra kilometers in the lashing rain with their head loads so
that they can keep their rendezvous with the contract men at the terminus. The dabbawallas
hardships are not confined to their jobs. In the citys impossible hosing problem most of them
are forced to leave their families behind in the village and see them twice or thrice a year.

They live in cramped slum ghettoes. They who go through so much to deliver hot meal to
hundred have time only for hurried chapatti and few morsels of vegetables wrapped in a
newspaper and brought from home. Like their clients they cannot or will not eat in restaurants
Most of Mumbais dabbawalla community comes from pune, some four train hours away
from Mumbai. Other dabbawallas have an explanation for this. At the turn century some
enterprising villagers from here went to Mumbai in search of better livelihoods. They
discovered that a hardy but illiterate man could be nothing but a coolie of sorts. They carried
any kind of load and some specialized in lunchboxes. It was only natural that the next man to
leave the village would come and stay with his relative in the city and as natural that his
kinsman would induct him into his own profession. Thus gradually the business become the
monopoly of families from this region. The association too is a binding force.it helps out with
accidents and in brushes with law one of the dabbawallas left his railway pass at home and
sure enough the ticket checker chose that day to ask for it. A general secretary patrolling that
particular beat got to hear of the incident and rushed to the station to sort out the matter so
that the dabbawalla could get on with his job explain an office beare. He adds sometimes
we take the help of the police in tracking organized gangs of dabba thieves. But you know
what the law is like. It is complicates matters. As far as possible we handle such things by
ourselves. Our men are everywhere and they soon get to know the whereabouts of the crooks.

1.6 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

Being a management student what has influenced me to work on this project is their
management style and efficiency. Through this project or dabbawallas management activities
we can learn about:

Logistics management: coding, collection and distribution

Quality management: six sigma, delivering, reliability, customer satisfaction.

Business leadership: low cost delivery, value creation and innovation.

Personal leadership: time management and commitment.

Human resource management: Collaboration, teamwork, trust, equit.

No hire and fire rule

*Community based recruitment

* Sharing common beliefs, values, ethics

* Following of strict dress code
* Loyalty and trust is their monopoly
*Training provided to the new joiners
Being a management student all the above mentioned qualities of the dabbawallas has
inspired me to work on this project.
It is very difficult to possess all these qualities but in todays competitive world all these
qualities are also very essential. So to know about the management skills I have worked on to
this project.

CH- 2 LITRETURE REVIEW

2.1 AT IIM CULCUTTA

Mumbai's dabbawalas is a 125 year old organisation which delivers nearly 2,00,000 lunches
everyday without any delays or errors.Their ingenious operational models is a subject of
many case studies across management schools worldwide and is often considered a
benchmark for operational excellence. The dabbawalas have been honoured by many leaders
including

Prince

Charles

and

Mr

Richard

Branson.

Dr Agrawal, a PhD in: 'A study of Logistics and Supply Chain Management of Dabbawalas
in Mumbai', spoke on management issues and the operational model of the Mumbai
Dabbawalas and alos touched upon making a change by service to the society
He said in the speech...
The Mumbai Dabbawala is a 118 years old organization. It is engaged in the business of
delivering home made food to the working professionals at their respective offices. The
persistent issues related to over-crowded traffic and long distances in Mumbai are a big
problem for working people.
The Dabbawalas employed in this unique industry carry the lunch boxes (Dabba) from the
working professionals home to their respective office places through various modes of
transport with utmost Sense of punctuality. This is a huge industry in this fourth most
populous city of the world and the Dabbawalas are known for their sheer sense of punctuality,
discipline and trustworthiness. Moreover, the facility of availing freshly cooked homemade
food for lunch at office place is another major factor that has taken this business to newer
heights on international level.
Dr. Pawan Agarwal (M. Com., B.Ed., LLB, ACS and Ph.D.), Mumbai Dabbawala authorized
speaker/presenter attended a seminar at MARC School of Business and made a passionate
and highly informative presentation to the students and

Dr. Pawan Agarwal, Mumbai Dabbawala authorized speaker/presenter attended a seminar at

MARC School of Business
faculty. He explained how the famed Dabbawalas with a strength of 5000 men , mostly
illiterate people, deliver and take back nearly 200,000 lunch boxes each day at Mumbai with
an accuracy of less than one mistake in 6 million deliveries , which earned them the coveted
six sigma certification and caught international attention. With zero attrition rate and
highest customer satisfaction, Dabbawalas have become a live case study in many
international B-schools.
Mahatma Gandhis exhortation that Customer is the King, Serve him is the guiding spirit of
the Dabbawalas, said Dr. Agarwal. He reminisced how even Englands Prince Charles
meeting with Dabbawalas had to be scheduled during their meager spare time in front of
Church gate Station and Virgin Airlines chairman Sir Richard Branson had to travel with
them in the luggage compartment of Mumbai local train to be with them, so that customer
deliveries are not affected !
In this organization, everyone who works is equal. Regardless of Dabbawalas function,
everyone gets paid about two to four thousand rupees per month (around 25-50 British
pounds or 40-80 US dollars).
Between 175,000 or 200,000 lunches get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000
Dabbawalas, all with an extremely small nominal fee and with utmost punctuality. Most
remarkably in the eyes of many people from the West, the success of the Dabbawala trade has
involved no Western modern high technology. The main reason for their popularity could be

the Indian peoples aversion to Western style fast food outlets and their love of home-made
food.
The New York Times reported in 2007 that the 125 year old Dabbawala industry continues to
grow at a rate of 5-10% per year. Dabbawalas have become an example of hard work, time
management, supply chain management success , team work and simple management skills ,
so much so that now they are invited to deliver lectures to Indias top management colleges
like IIMs and even to foreign universities.
Dabbawalas are integral part of Mumbai and every day they may be seen rushing to ensure on
time delivery of lunch boxes, so they are a common sight on the streets of Mumbai. Out of
5000 Dabbawalas, about 85% are illiterate and the remaining 15% are educated up to 8th
grade. However by working for past 116 years will full dedication, time management, no
strike gathering experience in logistics Mumbai Dabbawalas have created a place of their
own in the world of business. Six Sigma, ISO and many other certifications awarded to this
organization by external agencies further confirm the high quality of work being done by the
Mumbai Dabbawalas. The nuances of delivering a simple lunch in the Mumbai Dabbawala
way has proved to be an innovative learning experience for final year business school
graduates aspiring for top posts in corporate set-ups with fat salary packages. For the students
of MARC it was a great learning experience. They listened with rapt attention when
Pawan Agarwal elaborated the ideals of passion, teamwork, dedication and hard work and
participated enthusiastically in the interactive session that followed. Mr. U K Sharma,
Director of MARC felt that presentations on success stories like Dabbawalas help in instilling
the right values of passion, hard work and customer orientation among the students and
hoped that it will motivate them to replicate such systems in business and industry.
Mumbais Dabbawalla by Shobha Bondre
Shobha Bondre a famous Marathi writer won many awards for her 25 years of dedication
and contribution in literature. She wrote many books and novels in Marathi and English;
some of her Marathi novels were also translated in Hindi, English and Gujarati languages.
Her awarded novel 'Saata Samudrapar' is a famous Marathi Novel which got the
'Maharashtra's

Best

Novel

Award'

in

1997.

Apart from novel writing she also writes columns, articles and short stories in many journals
like Maharashtra Times, Lokprabha, Loksatta etc. In addition, she is very popular due to
dialogue scripting in many Marathi serials like Abhalmaya, Manasi, Ardhangini and Oon
Paaus. Some of her famous Marathi novels are Uncha Uncha Zoka.
Mumbai dabawalla a story about the how illiterate mans who manage the work with six
sigma cncept.and do their work on yime is all about written by mrs. Shobha bondre in her
book.
Mumbai dabawallas
Dabbawallahs of metropolis Mumbai suddenly gained fame when foreign media put them in
the spotlight. Forbes magazine was the first one to give them a six-sigma certification that
according to the president of the association and the protagonist of this book they were not
even aware of. This was followed by various documentaries and then famous visit by Prince
Charles that made the media go crazy over Dabbawallahs. To me this book is also a part of
that media frenzy.
Written both, in first person by Raghunath Medge as a memoir and by author as a narrator
this book tries to trace the century plus old history of Mumbai Dabbawallas. How a simple
village guy in Mumbai saw this an opportunity and started delivering boxes of home cooked
meals that gradually became a small scale industry in the city sustaining many families in the
villages for these men with Gandhi caps bringing food to offices. Book begins with the
highlight of the story where the two Dabbawallas including the protagonist go to London to
attend Prince Charles wedding and are treated as special guest at the Taj hotel there. The
experience makes a good story but nothing that you do not expect. After this the story of the
early days of the Dabbawallas begin along with the story of Raghunath who was one of the
few early-educated men in the community.
At some places it becomes the personal story of Raghunath where he talks passionately about
his village, his mother and stepmother and his father and the hardships they faced to give him
education. He talks about his own marriage and his clan who was his fathers responsibility
and after him became his. He talks about his first encounter with the city kids at college, his
dream to do an LLB and then a CA. He talks about the innovations he brought in the system
that made the coding on the dabbas uniform across the city. He talks about handling issues

when the business was down and organization was losing its strength. He talks about the
media craze for them and how some dabbawallas are now lecturing more than delivering
dabbas. Other places author gives her take on Dabbawallas. I wanted more on how they
manage the system, how much do they charge, how they get paid, how they increase business
and how they remain united. Basically I wanted a deeper understanding of business and
business process.

Mumbai works in different layers. A lot of things happen there that look so insignificant as
you see them but when you actually get to know about them, you are awed by them. One
such thing is the system that Mumbai Dabbwalla follows. I had no clue about the way they

operate and how they evolved with time till I read this book.
The book opens with London Beckons, where Raghunath Medge, the man who has made it
all happen and president of Dabbawallas association flies with one of his colleagues to
London to attend Prince Charless wedding. This was certainly a huge honour for the
Dabbawallas of Mumbai and how it all happened comes in the next chapters.
The way that these Dabbawallas operate, this case study was done by some MBA students
and thats how everything came into limelight. Forbes Magazine, Guiness Book, Ripleys

Believe It Or Not, Awards from IIMs, California University, BBC, CNN, Zee News, NDTV,
Star, India Today and many other popular names in the worlds did several features on them.
And not to forget the Six Sigma award.
In this book, the story is narrated by Raghunath Medge himself and Shobha Bondre.
Raghunath has explained how it all started and how his father used to take care of everything
before he took the charge. Almost everything has been told in the book very clearly and in the
most simple language. I was absolutely hooked to the book and took it everywhere with me.
Finished the book while I was getting my vehicle serviced at a service station.
As a translator, Shalaka has done a fine job. She has managed to keep to essence of the book
and has also made sure that everything is kept simple. Not too much brain raking is required
to read and understand the book. It just flows and takes you in the honest and hardworking
world of the Mumbai Dabbawallas.
I salute their spirit !