Mumbai: While the Dabbawalas of Mumbai are happy that they now have access to local trains and have restarted their tiffin delivery services after a break of almost 6 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tough times are far from over for them.
Before the pandemic, the famed tiffin delivery service employed approximately 5,000 people and ferried more than 2 lakh tiffin boxes across the town every day but now they barely have any dabbas to deliver.
Subhash Talekar, President of Mumbai Dabbawala Association told News18 that, "Before the pandemic, one dabbawala would ferry 20 to 25 dabbas in one day, but now they have just two tiffin boxes to deliver."
"So, if his salary before the lockdown was somewhere around fifteen to sixteen thousand, now it is barely a thousand rupees or fifteen hundred rupees per month. How can a man support himself and his family with such meagre income in a city like Mumbai?" he asked.
The dabbawalas incurred heavy losses with six months of no income during the pandemic, and many of them have returned to their native villages. Some dabbawalas hail from the Maval area of Pune, while few are from places like Junnar, Ambegaon, Rajgurunagar, Haveli, and Mulashi. Talekar said, "they have been informed about restarting tiffin services, but some are wary to come back from their villages because they worry that if people don't order dabbas as they used to, what would they ferry? It is indeed a matter of concern. After six months we are back to our jobs and only 500 out of 5000 have resumed work so far, and they too do not have sufficient work to do."
"I know we have to face losses, but it is also important to begin, so we have begun. It may be only two tiffin boxes today, but the numbers would go up with time, that is our only hope," he added.
Talking about being back at the job after a six-month hiatus Talekar said, "We felt our hopes and dreams renewed as we boarded the trains after so long. Dabbawalas, who are known for their crisp white dhoti, kurta, and Gandhi caps outfits will now be seen in a new avatar, with gloves on their hands, masks on their faces, and bottles of sanitizers in their pockets."
Ullas S Muke of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin box suppliers charity trust said that " Most of the people ordering dabbas now are frontline workers, and we consider it our great privilege that we can deliver food to them, especially since doctors, nurses and so many others are doing such valuable services for our country."
"However, we are worried about our business. For the past six months, we didn't have any contact with our customers because we generally don't get their phone numbers. But, since we were allowed to access trains we visited them to let them know that they can avail our services from now on. Most of them couldn't resume the tiffin service, even when they wanted to. Some housing societies have rules that don't allow delivery people, many offices are closed too, as people are working from home, so there are a lot of reasons why we are not getting enough dabbas to deliver. But, with each passing day the number of our dabbas are growing slowly, and I will focus on that for now," he added.
It is this hope and dedication that has kept the dabbawalas going for years, irrespective of floods or the 26/11 attacks the dabbawalas have not stopped their services, since the establishment of the delivery service in 1839.