Feeding the City by Sara Roncaglia

Author:Sara Roncaglia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Book Publishers

An NMBTSC member explains: why we become dabbawalas

There are many reasons why we leave the village to come to Bombay. Some have no choice, some do, some come to work and some for pleasure. In this job the point is to have time, not brains or talent, because some of us are illiterate, some have been educated, but those who are in the service network, whether educated or illiterate, all work the same way. Once they’ve learned the job, once the line work is explained, even those who have no education can do it well. Anyone can be perfect for this. To do other work you need to be educated, there are limits, you need to have reached tenth or twelfth class. But here, even those with no education can earn up to 5,000 rupees. Those who live in the village are not very well educated, so they came to Bombay to earn a wage because even people who are not educated can earn well. People who live in the village are used to working from the start, both hard work and slow work: for them there’s no difference. They just need the money, the money for the family. Who can manage on 1,000, 2,000, 2,500 rupees. It won’t fill the belly, so there has to be another job. They like tiffin work so they move here. And if someone doesn’t like tiffin work, they don’t come, they go somewhere else and do another job.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.