CM Devendra Fadnavis tells schools to lift ban on dabbawallahs

MUMBAI: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and education minister Vinod Tawde have directed the police and government authorities to facilitate dabbawallahs' services to schoolchildren. This newspaper had reported Tuesday how half the schools in the city have barred these traditional tiffin carriers citing security concerns.
Their intervention came after BJP MLA Ashish Shelar sent a letter Tuesday urging them to permit the entry of dabbawallahs in schools. Shelar invoked the dabbawallahs' heritage that dates back to 1890 and their enviable Six Sigma rating. He said they delivered 2,00,000 tiffins across the city 365 days, come rain or shine.
The MLA said schools could address security concerns by allotting identity cards and registration to dabbawallahs just as they do for other service providers and their own employees. Fadnavis wrote a remark instructing the police commissioner to convene a joint meeting with schools and dabbawallahs, and find a solution. Tawde directed the education department to immediately ask the concerned schools to permit the entry of dabbawallahs while addressing security concerns.
Subhash Talekar of the Mumbai Dabbawallahs Association, who first raised the issue, said, "I am grateful to Shelar for trying to secure the livelihood of the Marathi manoos. I am especially thankful to the CM and education minister. We hope the school authorities will cast aside their rigid stance at our joint meeting so that students can avail of piping hot home food at school." Dabbawallahs had claimed that commercial motives lay behind the ban.