The Hindu : Front Page : Dabbawallahs become multi-skilled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Dabbawallahs become multi-skilled

Prachi Pinglay

They are learning English, basic computing to improve business prospects

— PHOTO: AFP

Bytes for thought:‘Dabbawallahs', Mumbai's famous army of lunchbox deliverymen, take part in a computer class at the Dabbawallah Abhyas Kendra Study Centre, part of the Agrawal Institute of Management and Technology in Mumbai on Thursday. Courses in English and computer skills are being offered to the 5,000 or so dabbawallahs who deliver home-cooked meals to hungry office workers every day.

MUMBAI: Mumbai's famous tiffin carriers — popularly known as ‘dabbawallahs' — are learning English and basic computing to improve their business prospects.

Dabbawallahs collect lunch boxes from the suburban homes of nearly 2,00,000 customers and deliver them to offices and factories at lunchtime.

Mumbai has about 5,000 tiffin carriers who deliver about 1,75,000 lunch boxes daily in a century-old tradition. A unique tracking system ensures that all the lunch boxes reach their rightful owners in time, recently earning a rating of 99.99 percent for precision and accuracy from Forbes magazine.

The tiffin carriers have received international recognition for their supply chain management and even attended Prince Charles's wedding in 2005.

The course, designed by Yashwantrao Chavan Open University in Maharashtra, comprises Sunday classes and easy reading material for nearly 5,000 dabbawallahs.

Raghunath Medge, president of the dabbawallahs' association — and one of the few course graduates — says that most dabbawallahs only have a few years of education.

“Even those who have studied further have done so in Marathi language. It will not only help us but also our children who will be encouraged to pursue higher studies,” he said.

Gangaram Talekar, one of the most senior dabbawallahs, says the new course is to be welcomed because technological changes are tough to keep up with.

“Many customers send their addresses on text messages. If we cannot read and understand their message we have to go around asking people. Learning English and computers will save us time.”

At a small but compact class in a northern suburb of Mumbai, about 20 of the 5,000 dabbawallahs have gathered for the first class.

The room has several placards of basic greetings in English, all spelt phonetically alongside translations in Marathi.

“Good morning! Namaskar!” starts Pawan Agrawal, who has done his doctorate on the tiffin supply system and is conducting the classes.

The mostly middle-aged students echo him enthusiastically as they glance through their reading material. The class continues for about an hour with students repeating and learning greetings in English.

“They have busy schedules through the week. It is important to sustain their interest in course. We will also start classes at other venues so that it is convenient for them to travel,” Mr. Agrawal said.

— © BBC News/Distributed by the New York Times Syndicate

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page