Dabbawalas just a click away now

MUMBAI: The ubiquitous Dabbawala who forms an integral part of Mumbai’s landscape is morphing into a techno savvy businessman, using modern mediums such as mobiles and the internet to market the hugely successful business.

“We have recently launched SMS services for our customers where they can avail our service by sending us a text message. This step was taken after our website received a very good response and people wanted us to be more accessible,” Raghunath Megde president of the Dabbawala union said.

“We have also started using computers to manage records of our customers. Our website enables our customers to place their orders online. On the launch of our SMS sevice, we got 15 new orders on the first day itself,” Manish Tripathi, software consultant, and a part of the project, said.

When asked whether the Dabbawalas were heading towards adopting a more technological frame of business, Medge said “Our logistics system, where we deliver dabbas all over Mumbai, still functions without any technological help, but we feel that we have to use technology to market our business and reach as many people as possible.”

The Dabbawalas’ accurate and precise system of delivering hot home-cooked meals to more than 2 lakh office goers in Mumbai has drawn praise from all over the world, including business schools who want to study their system. Even Prince Charles made it a point to invite them to his second wedding after meeting them in the city in ‘03 during a visit.