India’s pandemic-hit lunchbox men battle food delivery start-ups

Mumbai’s renowned ‘dabbawalas’ partner with a trendy restaurant chain to take on India’s billion-dollar start-ups.

After the pandemic shut offices and put Mumbai’s renowned lunchbox deliverymen out of work, the 130-year-old “dabbawala” network has partnered with a trendy restaurant chain to take on India’s billion-dollar start-ups. For 20 years, neither terror attacks nor monsoon deluges could stop Kailash Shinde from delivering hot lunches to Mumbai office workers, until COVID lockdowns put the father of two children on a forced hiatus for a whole year. “It’s been very difficult,” the 42-year-old said. “I had to sell what I could and work odd jobs to get by.”