Findings and Suggestions

Providing use of trolly on Railway platform Rel

 CHAPTER VII

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

Pg. No.

7.1 FINDINGS 213

7.2 SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 218

7.1 FINDINGS

It is observed by the researcher that

Economic Behaviour

1. The turnover of dabbawala is increasing very slowly as

they do not use any marketing strategy for their business.

2. Dabbawala do not take special efforts for increasing turnover.

3. 82% of dabbawala families are having only dabbawala

himself, as a single earning member. Average size of the
family of dabbawala is 5 members

4. The average monthly income of dabbawala is Rs.4397/-

5. Majority dabbawalas are having extra income source

from other services like p a p e r d i s t r i b u t i o n , milk
distribution, rickshaw driving, gardening etc.

6. Dabbawala spend on an average only 6.49% of their

monthly income towards their business requirements,
which implies that they are having lowest cost in logistics
system.

7. Only 9% of Dabbawalas have experienced bad debts

from customer.

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 Findings and Suggestions

8. 92% of dabbawalas are not ready to plan for the use of

new modes of transport.

9. 91.60% dabbawalas are satisfied with their present

income.

10. There is no significant difference between the average

monthly income of different age groups of dabbawalas.

Social Behaviour

1 Majority of dabbawala are in the age group 20 to 35 years.

2 9 dabbawalas from selected sample are working even

after 60 years of their age. This shows that there is no
retirement age in this business.

3 4.40% dabbawalas have been providing their services

for more than past 40 years.

4 Only 5% dabbawalas are educated above SSC level;

whereas 16% of dabbawalas are found totally illiterate.

5 60% of dabbawalas are unwilling to bring their ward in

this business.

6 8 3 % of dabbawalas help their team members in case of

problems.

7 There are 4 women in their networking and supply chain

system.

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 Findings and Suggestions

Group Behaviour

1 98% of dabbawalas are Maharashtrians and they are

from Pune and surrounding areas only.

2 75% of dabbawalas are joining this business due to their

relatives.

3 More than 50% of dabbawalas are associated with their

group for more than 10 years.

4 Dabbawalas are bound by the disciplinary rules and

regulations of their organization.

5 Majority of dabbawalas ruled out the possibility of

working without organization.

6 The m o d e of c o m m u n i c a t i o n u s e d by majority
dabbawalas is via another member in their network
system.

7 97% dabbawalas are not interested to prepare food for

their customers.

Cultural Behaviour

1 They organise 'Lazims' and 'Dhols' on the occasion of

Ganpati Festival and Durga Pooja

2 Dabbawala don't consume liquor or any toxic product.

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 Findings and Suggestions

Religious Behaviour

1 Dabbawala organises pooja in their respective areas where

all group members come together and celebrate pooja
function.

2 Dabbawala also organises ' Bhajans and Kirtans' at

different places

3 On the occasion of Shiv Ratri, they go to Bhima Shankar

to t a k e t h e blessings of Lord S h a n k a r a and visit
Dharmashalas

General Behaviour

1 Mumbai dabbawala deliver tiffins using local train as a

major mode of transport. During peak hours they face
lot of problems to carry tiffins.

2 Dabbawala carries nearly 35 to 40 tiffins in one crate on

his head and it is very difficult for him to climb over the
bridges at railway stations. In such circumstances, they
cross railway track and railway authorities fine them.

3 Dabbawala also use bicycle to carry tiffins but due to

RTO rules, like no entry, signal rules and traffic jam,
etc. s o m e t i m e s t h e y face p r o b l e m s in s m o o t h
transportation of tiffins.

4 Dabbawala face problems for parking of bicycle and

handcarts, sometime it gets stolen or damaged.

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 Findings and Suggestions

5 In luggage compartment of local trains many commuters

are also boarding and due to this dabbawala face lots of
inconvenience.

6 Sometimes, due to cancellation of local train, their

supply chain gets disturbed to a great extent.

7 Due to heavy traffic and large number of vehicles on

road, dabbawala can not utilize road transport for longer
distance.

8 92.40% of dabbawalas are not ready to provide any

courier service along with delivery of tiffins.

9 Because of geographical structure of Mumbai city, the

better availability of local trains and other favourable
circumstances, dabbawalas are able to function in
Mumbai region only.

10 Dabbawalas are reluctant to use modern technology and

organizational s e t u p for the development of their
business.

11 A new concept is coming up in this field, where some

people are preparing food and supplying their own tiffins
to the customers. This concept is well responded by such
families where husband and wife both are working and
there is nobody to prepare food at home.

12 There is no centralized record maintenance system in

the organization

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 Findings and Suggestions

Findings related to customers

1 The majority of customers are belonging to the age group

of 35 to 50 years because they need home coocked food.

2 More t h a n 50% customers are from working class

category.

3 9 3 % of customers believe that dabbawala service is

reliable and of utmost importance for them.

4 More than 60% of customers feel that if dabbawala do

not provide the services then the alternative services
will be costlier than dabbawala.

5 Majority of customers are unwilling to change to the

services of dabbawala.

6 Majority of customers are expecting extra services from

dabbawala in addition to delivery of tiffins.

7 63% of customers have advised that dabbawalas should

use modern technology for the logistics and supply chain.

7.2 SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. As dabbawala face problems in local trains during peak

hours, there should be a separate luggage compartment for
them during morning peak hours from 8:30 am to 11:30am.

2. To overcome the difficulty of carrying heavy weight on their

head while climbing over bridge, dabbawala can use trolleys
with the help of railway authorities.

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 Findings and Suggestions

3. To overcome the problems of road transport of bicycle and

hand cart, the RTO authorities should allow them an
exclusive entry in some areas during particular time as
they allow such entry for BEST buses or light vehicles.

4. There should be a provision for special parking places for

their bicycles and hand carts near station areas to avoid
damage or theft of these vehicles.

5. To increase turnover of dabbawala, they can use marketing

strategy to make the people aware that how home cooked
food is good for health.

6. Low cost or no cost marketing strategy can be used by

dabbawala to popularize their services. The researcher
suggests some strategies as follows:

a. Distribution of h a n d b i l l s n e a r b y c u s t o m e r s
residence, offices and station areas during their free
time or in the evenings.

b. They can organize road shows for awareness of how

home cooked food is good for health.

c. They can organize h u m a n chain to convey the

message of importance of home cooked food.

d. They can organize rally with message banners like

"Gharacha Aahar, S a k a s Aahar" (Home food,
nutritious food)

e. They can paint the same message on their hand carts

using attractive colours.

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 Findings and Suggestions

7. Organization can take leading part in providing education

to dabbawalas after their working hours with the help of
NGOs and government organizations.

8. The researcher suggests use of modern technology by

dabbawalas in the following fields :-

a. Maintenance of computerized records centrally.

b. Receiving orders through e-mail or SMS services in

organization's office.

c. Receiving complaints or follow-up through e-mail or

SMS services in organization's office.

d. By starting their own website in order to spread

awareness about their functioning.

9. As some other people are competing with the business of

dabbawalas, to face this competition, the researcher
suggests following:

a. To prepare food for those customers who cannot get

home cooked food.

b. Dabbawalas can involve ladies for cooking food.

c. Preparing food by dabbawalas themselves can be

utilized for those customers whose family is not
available for a particular period, like during summer
vacation, etc.

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 Findings and Suggestions

POST SCRIPT :

1. Publication of Marathi Book written by Mrs. Shobha Bondra

" M u m b a i c h a A n n a d a t a " ; R a j h a n s P r a k a s h a n on 15th
September,2006 by the worthy h a n d s of Hon. Chief Minister
of Maharashtra Shri. Vilasrao Deshmukh. Author of the book
mentioned the part of the researcher in providing useful
information for the book.

2. O p e n i n g c e r e m o n y of t h e M a r a t h i Film " M u m b a i c h a
Dabbewala" on 23rd September, 2006 with worthy hands of
Marathi film actor Shri Bharat Jadhav along with researcher
and president and secretary of Dabbawala organisation.

3. The r e s e a r c h e r presented Supply chain management of

dabbawala in the seminar organised by Megron Co. Ltd, in
the presence of executive board members of ING group,
Netherlands alongwith Mr. W.Kok, Formar Prime Minister of
the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

221