MUMBAI , India ( CNN ) -- Every day the fate of 200,000 Mumbai residents ' lunches lie in the hands , and on the heads , of the city 's lunch delivery men , the dabbawalas . Lunch is served : The dabbawalas have been serving up lunch to Mumbai residents for 118 years . A corp of around 5,000 tiffin lunch box dabbawalas have been supplying the city 's hungry workers with hot home-made lunches since Mahatma Gandhi was a 21-year-old law student . From Monday to Saturday , regardless of monsoon rains or sweltering heat , they can be seen across the city balancing up to 40 metal lunch pails on their heads or pushing fully laden hand carts . `` The world is advancing and people are taking outside food , but maybe only once in a week . People still like to take homemade food , usually every day , so that 's why we 're in demand , '' says 33-year-old dabbawala Manish Tripathi from his apartment in Borivali , a suburb of Mumbai . Not only providing a necessary and recession-proof service -- even in tough economic times , people will always need lunch -- the dabbawalas are a cooperative that can boast a business record of reliability that would have any operation salivating with envy . In a city of 18 million people living cheek by jowl , most of them appearing on the move at the same time , the chances of a lamb biryani ending up in the place of a tarka dahl would seem to be high . However according to Tripathi , for every 16 million deliveries only one will go AWOL . `` Really it is magic , '' he said , perhaps revealing the unexpected secret of success of the dabbawalas . The six sigma rating the dabbawalas received by Forbes magazine precipitated a rush of interest from management supply companies and business schools searching for the secrets of its success . The rating means that the dabbawalas have a 99.9 percent efficiency rate . The `` magic '' Tripathi goes on to explain has less to do with an intangible mysticism and more to do with the tight-knit group of dabbawalas and the unique delivery system . Watch Manish Tripathi explain how the dabbawalas work » . A typical day for a dabbawala starts at around 8 am when the cylindrical metal tiffin boxes are collected from homes and taken to the nearest railway station where they are loaded onto crates and transported by train to downtown Mumbai . Tripathi and his group of dabbawalas work along the city 's Marine railway line and begin to gather at Churchgate station at 11.30 am . Each wearing a white Gandhi topi hat , the dabbawalas have time to chat and organize the tiffin boxes between them , before taking up to 40 tiffin boxes each , slung over bicycle handlebars , loaded onto hand carts or carried on long trays balanced on top of heads . On average one tiffin box will change hands four times in its journey from a home kitchen to a hungry office worker . So far , so simple . However , the majority of the dabbawalas are illiterate and the sorting is done mostly by a system of color coding handles and tiffin box covers that has hardly changed since the first tiffin was delivered in 1890 . As well as the long-practiced delivery system , and the cheap , extensive and reliable rail network of the city , it 's the unity of the dabbawalas that Tripathi credits with being a key factor in their longevity . The dabbawalas belong to the Vakari sect and have roots to the simple farming community of Pune outside Mumbai in Maharashtra state . `` They are a single DNA , '' he says . `` Everyone is a Marathi , they are made from the same cloth , speak the same language , everyone 's lunch is the same , everyone 's god is the same . So there 's a high degree or coordination and commitment . `` When you have organizations with people with different backgrounds , different castes , different languages , there 's bound to be disagreement and a problem among them . '' Despite the growing social mobility of India 's middle classes , caste then still has a central place in the lives and options open to millions more in India . For Tripathi and the other dabbawalas their success and longevity is source of pride in their heritage . If the delivery system of the dabbawalas and hiring system is archaic , Tripathi can be credited with bringing the collective into at least the 20th century . He set up a dabbawala web site five years ago and in 2006 started a text message ordering service for dabba customers , which 5 to 10 people use every day . Companies have n't been slow to tap into the dabbawalas network or reputation of reliability and trustworthiness . The Bank of India , and India 's booming mobile phone and Internet providers including Airtel and Reliance and have used the dabbawalas to distribute flyers for their services with the tiffin boxes . `` Once in a while the customers do n't mind , but if this is happening every day the customer will get annoyed , so we keep it to a minimum , '' says Tripathi . While small groups of dabbawalas operate individually of other groups in different areas of the city -- sharing the months taking equally between all ; an average dabbawala wage is around $ 100 a month -- there is an informal hierarchy . A board of directors is made up of around five senior dabbawalas who in their dotage do n't have to carry the lunch boxes until they kick the can , but are on hand to resolve any disputes . Expansion of the network of dabbawalas is limited , however , the extra revenue from associations with the likes of Airtel , lectures and media operations goes to the Dabbawala Foundation , a social security fund for the dabbawalas and their families , a well as a means to buy new carts for bicycles . As well as delivering the tiffin boxes , English-speaking Tripathi is the chairman of the Dabbawala Foundation , who clearly enjoys his extra role as patron . `` I get the money from various sources , '' he says . `` I ca n't talk about where the money is from , '' he continues , his eyes dropping to the floor , `` but I can say that money is never a problem . If you 're intentions are good , money will come automatically , '' he smiles the twinkle returning to his eye . By finding a way through the network of unmapable Mumbai streets and latterly discovering ways in which to tap into new revenue streams the dabbawalas appear future-proof , their unique system more than capable standing up to and economic downturn or personal changes in taste .
Mumbai 's dabbawalas have been delivering lunches in the city for 118 years . The dabbawala is a traditional Indian lunch that consists of lentils, rice and curry. Supply chain studies say dabbawalas have a 99.9 percent success rate . Despite little change in 100 years , dabbawalas now have web site and text service .