‘Normalcy once all offices open’
Train commuters often kept time with the 5,000-strong network of dabbawalas who delivered home-cooked food to office goers from Ambernath and Virar to Colaba and Churchgate between 12.30pm to 1.30pm every day (except Sundays). However, once the nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 25, the dabbawalas went out of work.
Sandeep Gaikar, who has been a dabbawala for 30 years, missed his itinerant lifestyle. “I travelled everywhere by the local train to deliver tiffins across the city. I travelled on the Central and Harbour lines,” said the 45-year-old.
Though Gaikar’s landlord waived his ₹5,000 rent for some months during the lockdown, his family faced hard days. The Kalyan resident was the only earning member of his family till the pandemic hit. As his monthly income, which ranged at around ₹15,000 came down to zero,
Gaikar eventually moved back to his village in Junnar in Pune district — which he had left at 15 to work in the big city — where he farmed on his family’s small landholding. Gaikar returned to Mumbai in three months and took up a part-time gig as a security guard.
Gaikar’s wife, Kavita (37) now works in a small tailoring unit while daughter, Pratiksha (18), will begin college this year. Son, Sahil (16) will now attend school in the village.
“The cost of education is high in Mumbai,” Gaikar said.
“It is a blessing that the local train services have finally resumed for the general public. We have suffered for one year as no other mode of public transport is possible for moving the number of tiffins we do,” Gaikar said when we met him at Sanpada station.
It’s not the same however, he said. “Many dabbawalas have returned to their village. People are working from home, so there are not many tiffins to deliver,” he said.
“Earlier, one dabbawala would carry 30 tiffins. Now we carry barely eight,” said Gaikar, who collects tiffins from Kalyan and delivers them to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee in Vashi.
The staggered timings do not affect Gaikar. In fact, he said, he often finds the trains empty enough for him and his tiffin stand. But he isn’t happy about it.
Only after all offices resume, our work will get back to normal,” he said.