The dabbawalas of Mumbai, who carry lunch boxes from homes to offices, do not hire strangers. “We don’t recruit our dabbawalas externally, they have to have a bond with the people in our district,” one of them told researchers in a study published by Open Book Publishers. Another said: “When we’re a man short, we call someone from the village.”
New members come from 30 villages in and around Pune, Knowledge at Wharton reports. It quotes the researcher Agrawal: “Most people tend to refer their friends or family members who belong to the same community. The only recruitment criterion is a ‘guarantee’.”