Dabbawalas join hands to help landslide victims, survivors

Over 5,000 dabbawalas working under the Nutan Tiffin Box Supplier Association (NTBSA) have come together to help Malin village landslide victims. As per their plan, they will drop an appeal letter in every customer's tiffin box, requesting him/her to donate money to the chief minister's fund which can then be used for the assistance of the tragedy's survivors and families of victims.

Every day more than two lakh dabbas are delivered by the dabbawalas and, interestingly, most of these dabbawalas are from Pune.

The landslide in Malin village, situated in Ambegaon taluka, around 120km from Pune, claimed hundreds of lives.

NTBSA spokesperson Subhash Talker said, "This is one of the gravest tragedies to have hit the state. We need to stand behind the victims' families and show support. That's why we have decided to help them by appealing to people to donate money to the fund for the villagers."

Besides this, dabbawalas also plan to dedicate the dahi handi prize money to a two-month-old survivor. Dabbawalas celebrate the festival every year. This time, they will collect all the prize money to give to the infant's family.

The accuracy of dabbawalas in delivering home-cooked meals to more than two lakh office-goers on time every day has drawn praise from across the world, including business schools that want to study their system. They even have the six sigma certification in recognition of their efficiency to unfailingly deliver lunch boxes daily. Britain's Prince Charles has always been vocal in his praise for them. Some dabbawalas have even been invited by management universities to give lectures about their infallible system.