Railways’ women staff in Mumbai demand basic facilities

From driving local trains to being engine drivers, security personnel, ticket checkers, booking clerks and police staff, there is a whole lot of women staff in almost every cadre of the railways.

However, to their dismay, the fairer sex employees are not being provided with necessary facilities like changing rooms and separate toilets.

“There are odd shifts and strict working hours, but the railways is yet not sensitive towards our needs. The staff lobbies are male-dominated and we are forced to adjust there,” a woman staff member said, requesting anonymity.

“There are make-shift changing rooms, which are risky. We have to use the common toilets in running rooms (rest rooms for train drivers) and there are many such related problems,” another staffer added.

The problem is more acute among train driving staff as they are just a handful among their hundreds of male peers.

“The railways take pride in having us as their staff but have failed to be gender sensitive. Driving a train or having Surakshini squads of ticket checkers and security personnel are heavy-duty jobs, and there are no dedicated rest rooms for us,” she added.

The railways has also hired all-women gangs of labourers to track maintenance and building work. These women gangs, with kids in arms, mostly stay in temporary sheds along the tracks.

In fact, railway minister Mamata Banerjee had announced setting up 50 créches for women employees in this year’s budget.

“There are a lot of issues regarding women. They do not have many facilities that they should rightfully have. We have demanded women-specific dedicated facilities from the railway minister,” Congress railway trade union leader PS Rastogi said.

A 29-year-old government railway police constable filed a petition last month, seeking directives to the state police to set up a complaint committee or cell at every police station where women in the force can seek redressal to complaints of sexual harassment, as per the directives of the Supreme Court in the landmark Vishaka case in 1997.

The guidelines to benefit working women were formed by the apex court in the case of Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan, which is a serious issue.

The railways said they are looking into the problem.