Mumbai's Dabbawalas - A Little Red Sticker is Feeding Mumbai’s thousands of Hungry Slum Children.

One of the most efficient system in the world, Certified six sigma by Forbes and a Harvard case study.

A simple bright idea struck the Happy Life Welfare Society and the Dabbawala Foundation. And it was a sticker! They collaborated to initiate Share My Dabba, an incredibly simple idea helps distribute 16 tons of uneaten food every single day, to the hungry and homeless street kids in Mumbai.

Here’s how powerful the idea really is! From a 120 tons of food distributed in the city each day, more than 16 tons remains uneaten, some of it even untouched! So on their way back from collection, once you've had your fill, the dabbawalas sort the tiffins ‘with stickers’ and hand them over to NGO workers and volunteers working with slum children, along their respective routes.
 

Some amazing facts about Mumbai's Dabbawalas

• Dabbawalas are not employees but each one of them is a self-employed entrepreneur. They are equal shareholders in the Dabbawalas Trust.

• Approximately 5000 dabbawalas cover around 70 Sq. Km in and around Mumbai and carry out 400,000 transactions everyday.

• Not a single piece of paper is used during this whole process. All dabbas have different numbers, colors or other symbols (colour coding system) so the dabbawalas can remember where to deliver a specific dabba.

• Forbes magazine has appreciated their efficiency despite the complexity of the process. Their results are spectacular: one error in every 8 million deliveries, or 16 million if you include the return trip.

• Dabbawalas are mostly illiterate or at least very low educated. An average dabbawala is educated upto 8th grade schooling. 

• Dabbawalas don't rely on modern technology to work their supply chain. They rely mainly on manpower (recently they started taking delivery requests through SMS).

• The service is almost always uninterrupted, even on the days of inclement weather conditions (eg. monsoons).

• From Prince Charles to Richard Branson, dabbawalas have won fans all over the world for their management skills. When Prince Charles visited them during his visit to India, he had to fit in with their schedule, since their timing was too precise to permit any flexibility.

• Business schools, Universities and Corporate from all over the world invite Dabbawalas to give lecture on their Management skills.

• Dabbawalas are certified to the international standard: ISO 9001 in recognition of their reliable quality management system.

• This is probably the most environment-friendly enterprise, with zero percent fuel usage, using existing public transportation (trains), bicycles and handcarts to get the job done.