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A royal visitor for the `dabbawallahs'

By Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI Nov. 3. Besides the Captains of the Navy and industry and stars of the Bollywood, Prince Charles will also have a brush with the lunch-box carriers or (`dabbawallahs') in Mumbai in his two days stay here beginning tomorrow.

In Mumbai, one can get a meal cooked at home delivered to one's place of work right before the lunch break, for just Rs. 150 a month, thanks to the services of `dabbawallahs'.

Everyday, a network of about 5,000 `dabbawallahs' pick up the lunch boxes from about two lakh homes scattered all over the city and suburbs and deliver them to the thousands of offices and other establishments which could be 20 or more km away. After the lunch, the empty container or `dabba' is returned home. The `dabbas' have simple alpha-numerical code which these unlettered carriers understand and know their origin and destination. The American business magazine, Forbes has given the Six Sigma Performance Plus Rating, i.e., only one mistake in six million deliveries. A man collects about 30 `dabbas' from a locality, puts them in a wooden crate and takes them to the railway station where primary sorting is done.

He takes his crate which now has meal containers from other areas as well to the railway junction or terminus. These are sorted again at this marshalling point where `dabbawallahs' from different suburbs gather.

Here thousands of `dabbas' get sorted and regrouped for each office areas. The `dabbas' change so many hands in the process. After the lunch, the empties go back home in the reverse process.

A `dabbawallah' gets Rs. 3000 a month for the hard work and efficiency of such an impeccable quality. He never fails to turn up and finds his way through same overcrowded trains and congested roads in hot and humid weather, rain or shine. The speed and efficiency are amazing and the system has not degenerated despite being over 100 years old because the system is simple and driven by team work. Nobody is the owner and nobody is the worker. They do not have a middleman either.

Prince Charles would surely be astonished like the students of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, who had expressed amazement to the president of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association, Raghunath Medhge, how his colleagues tackled operational hurdles while sustaining the quality of service. The answer was: simply.

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