Delivery boys, dabbawalas face uncertain future

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ambala, June 19

Delivery boys and dabbawalas were among those sections of the society who had been hit hard by the Covid lockdown. For the past three months ever since the national lockdown was imposed in March, these food-on-the-wheels distributors were not getting enough orders to sustain their livelihood.

While their business remained totally shut till the late last month, even the permission to start food delivery failed to bring back their business.

In Ambala twin-towns, there were estimated over 1,000 delivery boys and more than 100 dabbawalas, who supplied homemade food in tiffins at nominal rates.

Many of the delivery boys and tiffin makers had already shifted to other jobs, mainly selling fruits and vegetables or some even started working on daily wages with the local commercial establishments.

Aman( 20), only earning hand in the family of six, including his widowed mother and five siblings, was one of the many Covid-hit delivery boys. “I used to earn between Rs 500 to Rs 700 daily before the lockdown, but after sitting idle for over two months, I have now started working as a farm labourer and at present I am engaged in paddy transplantation,” he said.

Sheela, who used to sell almost 100 food tiffins daily before the pandemic, was now working as a maid to sustain her family of four, including an alcoholic husband and two minor children.

“I’m still waiting the food delivery business to revive as after unlock-1, I have started getting up to 10 orders daily, which were over 100 till the lockdown was imposed,” said Sahu, a delivery boy.

Another dabbawala, Geeta, said she has started getting five to seven orders daily for the past fortnight and she would still wait for some more time before winding up her 15-year-old business.

Most of the local eateries and restaurants, who were offering take away and home delivery services, said over 90 per cent of the food orders that they were getting these days were of take away as the customers preferred to collect their food on their own instead of getting it through other hands.

“The delivery boys are worst-hit as not only they lost their income but many of them even used to get free food from us,” said local restaurateur Mohan Singh.