New Delhi: The Mumbai Dabbawala Association, which delivers home-cooked food to thousands of people daily, has declared a 6-day holiday. The holiday starts
from March 30 and will continue till April 4. So thousands won’t get home-cooked food during this period.
Holiday declared for Gramdevta festival
The dabbawalas of Mumbai will be visiting their native village, to celebrate the Gramdevta festival. Like every year, the Dabbawalas who have their homes in Mulshi, Maval, Ambegaon, Junnar, Khed in Pune district, and Akola and Sangamner in Ahilyanagar will be returning to their native place for locals fairs and also to worship their family deities.
They will be joining in traditional religious ceremonies and agricultural activities.
The holiday of the dabbawalas will impact thousands of workers in Mumbai and regions around the city, who depend upon them for their daily lunch. On the Central and Western lines of the Mumbai local everyday around 1 lakh tiffin reach the workers at a fixed time.
However due to the current shortage of LPG food coming from homes and mess have considerably reduced. This has also impacted the services of dabbawalas in the city. The tiffin delivery has reduced by 10 to 30 per cent in the city, due to the LPG shortage.
Kiran Gawande, Secretary of the Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association said that every year during this time, the Mumbai Dabbawals visit their villages, to celebrate Gramdevta festival. However, he said that this time due to certain other holidays falling in the same week, like Mahavir Jayanti, Hanuman Jayanti and Good Friday, the holiday that they will be taking would be only 4 days.
The Association expressed their regret for the inconvenience that this break would cause to the customers. However they requested that there should not be wage deduction for the period in which tiffin will not be delivered by the dabbawals.
The dabbawals will resume their services on April 5.
