As Unlock-4 materializes, the famous dabbawalas of Mumbai have also recently approached the Maharashtra Government. Mumbai Dabbawala Association, the body representing the city’s famous tiffin carriers, is planning to approach the Uddhav Thackeray Government with their demands as they struggle to cope up with the COVID-19 crisis paving way to their starvation.
As their livelihood was based on the office goers who were their main customers, they have been hit hard by the recent work from home culture. They said that they want local train services to be resumed at the earliest or a monthly subsistence of Rs 3,000 for each of the dabbawalas.
However many government, semi-government and private offices are now functioning again at limited capacity in consonance with the Unlock. But their problems persist as they are unable to provide services to their clients in absence of access to Mumbai’s suburban local trains.
After over two months of a complete lockdown, the Maharashtra administration permitted government, semi-government and private offices to start functioning partially from 5 June. While some of them are functioning with a maximum permissible capacity of 15 percent, private offices have been allowed to function with a maximum employee strength of 10 percent on the premises.
The Central and Western railways restarted select local train services in Mumbai from 15 June. Although, only employees associated with essential services were allowed to board these trains. “If the state government cannot start all train services,” Talekar said, “it should at least consider Mumbai’s dabbawalas as part of essential services and allow them to board the local trains that are already functional”. The local trains being the lifeline of the people of Mumbai who are always on the move struggle to make ends meet in these raucous conditions.
Like the dabbawalas, several groups such as bank employees and retail traders have also requested the state government to allow them to use local trains. “If either of these things is not possible, then we should simply be given an allowance of Rs 3,000 a month. For how long will the dabbawalas sit at home without work?” Talekar added.
These dabbawalas dressed in a white outfit and a Gandhi cap, they have won accolades for their efficiency from across the world, and Mumbai’s busy and robust suburban train service has been the backbone of their service since the beginning.
Before the lockdown, Talekar said, Mumbai had about 4,500 dabbawalas who would deliver 2 lakh tiffins across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai every day. The lockdown, which compelled most of the city’s service sector to work from home, rendered the dabbawalas jobless”, he added. “Most of us have gone back to our villages. Only about 20 percent are left in Mumbai, sustaining themselves with odd jobs such as driving autorickshaws and gardening for big societies,” Talekar said.
Many big faces like Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy, Chef Vikas Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, etc. came to give voice to the dabbawalas as they continue to face multifarious challenges in face of the pandemic, cyclones, heavy rains, etc. Locals too have come forward to help them amid these challenging conditions, especially after one succumbed to starvation.
Incidentally, Mumbai is a Covid-19 hotspot, having recorded a total of 1,42,099 cases as of Friday evening. Of these, 19,401 are currently active.