The ‘dabbawala’ network: A near-failsafe food delivery system that has been feeding Mumbai for a century
Without errors or delays, the ‘dabbawalas’ transport hundreds of thousands of lunchboxes every day, all without the use of technology. Their efficient system has earned praise from business schools worldwide
When Mininath Jadhav picks up the first lunchbox at a tenement building in Andheri, one of Mumbai’s most densely populated suburbs, just minutes before 9 a.m., he has already been awake for five hours, and finished his morning job as a milkman, which he does for two hours every morning in his neighborhood. There are still 23 more lunchboxes to collect in Andheri before 10 a.m., followed by another 37 to deliver around 1 p.m. to various offices in Lower Parel, a suburb 12 miles further south, reached by Mumbai’s local trains. At 37, Mininath has been part of the small army of men responsible for feeding over 100,000 people daily in the city for 24 years. These workers are known as dabbawalas and are easily recognized by their traditional white Gandhi caps, or topis.
