The city’s dabbawalas, who suspend their peripatetic work life on Sundays as it is a holiday, gathered at a Dadar venue early afternoon yesterday. The dabbawalas, whose enviably efficient delivery system has caught the global imagination, were given ration kits at a distribution drive, as they have faced a very tough two years during the Coronavirus-induced lockdown. “Our work was directly hit during the shutdown and then slowdown. Both educational institutes and workplaces, the major part of our service, were shut. In addition, public transport, which we depend on, also closed early on. It was a hard blow for us,” said one of them.

The men in white with their trademark Gandhi caps said, as they awaited the ration kits, “We are farmers too. Our fathers were farmers, most of us have fields in Maharashtra. Several of us cultivated rice to bring in some money during the bleak times.” Today, they claimed, “work is back but nowhere near earlier levels. We delivered 90-odd dabbas on a work day earlier, now it is approximately 25-30.”