The Great Mumbai Dabbawala sham

“While 1.6 million people in Mumbai enjoy their lunch today, 200,000 children on the streets will go hungry,” starts a video that went viral on the social media just a few weeks ago.

Apart from throwing light to some shocking statistics about the hungry, the video highlighted a new campaign that supposedly ensured that the street kids on the streets of Mumbai would not go hungry again. Only because left-over food from Tiffins could be shared with them.

Images of street-kids, sitting huddled together, as the iconic Mumbai dabbawalas handed them steel tiffin boxes that indicated a ‘share sticker’ was surely noble and melted many hearts, in India and abroad.

Everyone, who was anyone, on the facebook circuit shared the video clip of this unique ‘Share My Dabba’ campaign on their timeline, and had some great things to say about it.

The official facebook page (Share My Dabba) recorded 12,266 likes.

“The initiative is a non-profit collaboration between Happy Life Welfare Society”.

So great was its impact that today, the YouTube video clocks a whopping 329,551 views.

The concept reads good on paper, but what many don’t know is that this feed-the-hunger campaign makes a lot of false promises.

Firstly, it does not involve the labour of the Mumbai dabbawalas as promised in the video.

When Emirates24|7 spoke to Arvind Talekar, spokesperson from the Nutan Mumbai Box Suppliers Trust – Dabbawala, he claimed that they had no role to play in the drive.

“That is not from our organisation,” he said, adding, “It is just someone elses way to do his propaganda.”

“It is not possible also. We are bound by time. We don’t have time to spare to do all these things. And obviously we don’t want to give any one’s food to the others… Who will take care of the food… whether it is hygienic or not.

“It is just some advertisement. Our organisation is not related.”

The short film, however, claims the campaign is connected and is on-going.

Writer Anant Rangaswami of FirstPost detailed the lack of clarity citing that it would be impossible to carry out this feat, as featured in the video, without affecting the six-sigma system of the Mumbai Dabbawalas.

“Where are these 200000 children? In convenient clusters, just outside the railway stations, waiting for the food?”

Secondly, this is just a concept, and is not a reality.

“The tense used (in the video) suggests that this is what HAPPENS, not that this is not something that COULD happen.”

And, thirdly, this film is apparently created with awards in mind.

“Whatever happens, I hope this film never wins an award – because they have made hundreds of thousands of people feel good, thinking this was actually happening, when all the time it was a fairy tale,” wrote Rangaswami.

Some viewers have already seen through this great initiative.

“It’s a good video but am afraid it doesn’t work and is a scam. I run a Tiffin/Dabba service and know that the tiffins are picked up only the next day of delivery with the next days lunches. So unless the plan is to deliver spoilt food to kids, it just doesn’t work,” wrote Nayak on a social media forum.

On their facebook page, enquiries by eager citizens for the sticker that is shown on the video were responded with, “once we tie up with your dabbawala network you'll have the stickers. Thank you for caring”.

Also read:

Mumbai's 'dabbawalas' are a hit in the UAE
 

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