Mumbai Dabbawalas' spouses to soon join business

The internationally known Mumbai Dabbawalas will soon have their spouses dishing out packed meals for their customers in the country's financial capital, the Dabbawalas said on Friday.

The Dabbawalas, known for their efficient delivery of lunch boxes to people around Mumbai, were delivering their success techniques to management students here in the national capital.

"We are in the process of setting up logistics so that our wives can now cook meals for our customers, for those who do not have someone who can prepare food at home, but still wish to have home food," said Arvind Talekar, a representative of the tiffin box revolutionaries.

With plans for catering on the anvil, thousands of women will soon be employed.

Talekar said in a bid to support the families of those Dabbawalas, who might have died in a road accident, the firm has been employing the women from their families to help in the transactions.

In over 125 years of their existence in Mumbai, the Dabbawalas have been collecting packed lunch boxes from homes to deliver at workplaces, schools and colleges across the city.

After the launch of their website in July this year, the six-sigma rated firm has had many requests from customers to provide them with cooked meals as well, Talekar said.

With a fleet of 5,000 men donning white Gandhi caps, these tiffin bearers help reach lunch boxes to nearly 200,000 people everyday, with a mere alpha-numeric coding, yet no error.