Murali introduced the first speakers of the day, Subodh Sangle. Subodh is supposed to be
the spokesperson of Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association. This person came
and gave a presentation on the dabbawala and how they achieved six Sigma in
their delivery. He also had his side kick, a dabbawala who came along with him for I do not know what but to say hi and take his 2 minutes of fame on the large stage. Though I knew about the subject of Dabbawalas, still there were a couple of new
snippets that I got to know.
The
dabbawalas, around 5000 in number now, come from a specific community or caste in
Maharashtra – The Malva caste. These folks are not highly educated, but operate
a tiffin delivery system, picking up tiffin boxes from homes or their
customers, delivering them at their offices, and bringing back the tiffin boxes
to home for a monthly charge of Rs 800.
They
have got various accolades for their operation. Prince Charles visited them and
so have various other dignitaries.
It seems,
if there is a delay in providing the tiffinbox to the dabbawala, they will
tolerate it for 2 times. If there is a delay third time, they will stop the
service. Though this is against the principle of customer service, on a large
scale it helps as some other customer would not be penalized because of delay
by one other customer.
It was
interesting to note that cash and letters were also carried in the tiffin boxes.
The way they put it is, it is not food, but the trust that was carried in them!
Their aim
is to have punctuality and accuracy at any cost.
In
recent months, they have started a campaign of ‘Share My Dabba’ also. This is a small sticker which if someone
puts in the dabba, the leftover food is shared with poor and hungry children. I
had seen this youtube video earlier, but it is worth a watch again!
However,
talking about Subodh Sangle, he seemed to be a well educated English speaking person.
But I did a little bit of research and it was clear that Subodh may not be the
representative of all the Dabbawalas. There seems to be some issues between him
and the Dabbawalas who accuse him of not representing them correctly and not
attending any of their association meetings for the last 5 years. Here is a
news article from a trusted source.
My take:
Success has many fathers! When
people realized the successful operations of Dabbawalas, many claimed association
with them. There will be people who will also try to take advantage of it. But
that does not take the sheen away from the Dabbawalas who have been doing a
great service.
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