Comment by blackRust | Hacker News Reader

Comment by blackRust | Hacker News Reader

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First as mentioned Indian meals take time to cook and there is a strong emphasis on home cooked meals. There is social stigma involved in carrying the tiffin case back.

The workforce for the dhabbawallas is cheap and they live on a fairly low income. The way I understand it only a certain caste are dhabbawallas (correct me if I'm wrong).

Even though the number of deliveries is huge, the people being delivered earn considerably more than the dhabbawallas, they all have office jobs.

Having lived and experienced the Indian mechanism of things I am always impressed when this story resurfaces, but unfortunately knowing India I am very skeptical. They no doubt excel at what they do, but I would take the statistics with a grain of salt.

Ask yourself how it is possible to measure such performance?

The entire mechanism is so informal and excludes any 'reporting' (in the sense of data about efficiency) and is focused purely on delivery. I know a lot of "certified" companies in India that lack basic factory security, hygiene and protocols: they would fail a "real" certification.

I do not follow - isn't it all the more amazing that poorly paid, uneducated workers without proper salaries are able to achieve this?

I would measure their performance by inserting random 'canary tiffins' over a period and measuring their loss percentage. You could also track some individual carriers and get a similar measure to combine into the previous metric.

A lot of things emerging from India aren't what they appear to be (eg. The $35 tablet). However, this bit is true. It's slightly hard to believe, but the dabbawallahs have been elaborately studied and covered by lots of esteemed organizations and publications.

Btw, the dabbawallahs have a big admirer in Prince Charles.They were even invited to the Charles-Camilla wedding. http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/apr/270411-dabbawallas-mumb...

>>The workforce for the dhabbawallas is cheap and they live on a fairly low income. The way I understand it only a certain caste are dhabbawallas (correct me if I'm wrong).

You need to understand the way this system works. In India the smaller cities and towns have virtually no opportunities if you want to financially well off. There fore the metros are flocked.

When such a large population of people gather at a city. There are huge opportunities for anything and everything. Tiffin delivery system is one such opportunity. You will see many other things in India. Roadside Coffee, tea and cigarette vendors. In the US you people buy everything in super markets. But here vegetables are sold by people who wander street by street selling vegetables on push carts. Heck there is even a market for people who take care of your slippers when you leave them behind while entering a temple/mosque.

Even though what they earn is very meager and may be nothing. But at least they have some means through which they can fill their stomachs. So dabbawallah's may be earning purely on basis of volumes alone.

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