Dabbawallahs become multi-skilled

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.