Mumbai, Sep 9
The heart-warming story of the world-famous 'dabbawalas' of Mumbai has been made part of the Class 9 English textbook in Kerala from this year, officials said on Monday.
The Kerala State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has included an article penned by travel writer couple Hugh and Colleen Gantzer, who are based in Mussoorie (Uttarakhand), in its school curriculam.
The chapter on 'dabbawalas' (Pg. 71-75) recounts the origin of the first ‘dabba’ (tiffin box) that was carried from Dadar (then considered a suburb) to south Mumbai’s Fort area, roughly 12 km away.
“That was way back in 1890 – or 134 years ago – and the first customer was a Parsi lady who hired Mahadeo Havaji Bachche to deliver a piping hot lunch box to her husband at his office downtown,” Raghunath Medge, the ex-President of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charitable Trust (NMTBSCT), told.
The NMTBSCT is the umbrella organisation under which the Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association (MTBSA) functions.
From those humble beginnings, the 'dabbawalas' grew and prospered, and at the last count before the Covid-19 pandemic, the busy tribe was 5,000-strong, ferrying around 2,00,000 ‘dabbas’ daily. They are admired and respected in Mumbai and world over for their unique, efficient and punctual service that is ranked equivalent to a Six Sigma Rating.
However, during the Covid pandemic, the trade suffered massively, reducing their numbers to around 2,000 and deliveries averaging around 1,00,000 daily, and now only those who are needy are accommodated to do the gruelling work, said Medge.