Challenges to the Old Delivery provider ‘Mumbai Dabbawala’ in the pandemic
More than 3500 employees has been reduced to only 500 to 600 today.
By Kumar Ankit
Mumbai: Lockdowns 1 and 2 came as blow after blow for Mumbai's Dabbawallas. Their last hope to survive the pandemic was farming, as most of them came from agricultural families. However, the June 5 cyclone destroyed their crops and damaged houses as well.
Mr Ritesh who handles the finance department of Dabbawala mentioned the major issues faced by the workers during the lockdown he said, "On June 5 the cyclone that came and the amount of rain that fell, many of our workers come from farming background and they don't have work but farming can help them in surviving in the pandemic what they were thinking but the cyclone damaged the farming, houses as well.
In the meantime, we were asking the state government to allow Dabbewala to travel by train, and from October 5th 2021, they allowed them to travel. We were expecting 20 to 25 per cent customer response but only 5 per cent response we got, we suffer there too."
In these bad conditions HSBC, an Investment banking company, helped rupees 15 Cr. to Dabbawala from their CSR funds. They also provided 1200 to 1500 mobile tabs to the Dabbawala's children who are missing online classes.
All the corporate companies are running their work from home even after lockdown as well because the strength of Mumbai's Dabbawala which was more than 3500 employees has been reduced to only 500 to 600 today.
"So far in this corona period 70 to 80 boxers have been infected with corona and 2 people have also died but their family has been given full assistance by NGO," Mr Ritesh said.
To Provide work for all the employees Mumbai dabbawalas are now bringing centralized kitchens into the market. The Center of this kitchen will be Mumbai and from the end of January 2022, they will start. Needed Vegetables for a business, will be purchased from dabbawala farmers only. The reason to open this centralized kitchen is also to employ Dabbawala's fourth generation.
"The road is not very difficult but everything is possible. Mumbai's Dabbawala will never be going to end": said, Mr Ritesh.