Indian Railways celebrates international women’s day! To celebrate this special day for women, Indian Railways has decided to empower its women staff across the nation. With over 13 lakh employees, Indian Railways is one of the largest employers of the world. Out of 13 lakh employees, over 1 lakh employees are women and the number is only increasing. In order to safeguard the women railway personnel, Indian Railways has taken certain measures to provide them with the right kind of environment at their workplace. To make the train journey safe and secure for women staff as well as for women passengers, Western Railways has come up with the first female local train in the world which will include CCTV cameras, talkback system in women coaches, iWatch app etc. With more than 100 coaches with CCTV cameras, Indian Railways has decided to expand the move in all the train coaches to ensure safety to its women passengers in the future.
Indian Railways has taken another step in order to provide safety to its women passengers. Now onwards, 6 seats will be reserved for women travelling alone in train in each sleeper coach and 3 seats in each AC 3 Tier coach. In case the seat is vacant, it will be allotted to women travelers in the waiting list. Also, 6 berths in the AC 3 Tier class of Garib Rath Express train is reserved for its woman passengers.
In addition to this, Indian Railways has also decided to take a step towards social responsibility by installing sanitary napkin vending machines across 8000 railway stations. In the New Delhi-based sanitary pad making unit, which is being operated by Railway Women Welfare Central Organization under Railway Board, 400 napkins per day are being manufactured each day.
Last year, the national transporter made a very big move by making Mumbai’s suburban Matunga Railway station, which registered its name in Limca book of Records and recently, Jaipur’s non-suburban Gandhi Nagar Railway station an all-women railway stations.
Also Read! Wow, Gandhi Nagar Jaipur Railway Station becomes an all-women station; see pictures here
With the success of Matunga station, General Manager of Central Railway, D.K. Sharma has asked all divisional managers of CR, namely Nagpur, Bhusaval, Pune and Solapur divisions to nominate one station each from their divisions to turn them into all-women stations. Also, today onwards, the suburban Ajni station which is 3 km away from Nagpur division, will be fully operated by women railway employees.
Another big move by Indian Railways! In a first, an all-women maintenance team have been deployed to work in Guwahati Coaching Depot. In addition to this, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Mumbai Shatabdi Express will now have an all-women TTE crew. In the coming days, it is also likely that other trains may also get an all-women TTE staff.
Also, to mark the special day of women folk, Surekha Yadav, Loco Pilot (Mail) who is also Asia’s first women train driver will run the Deccan Queen Express and will be assisted by Trushna Joshi, Sr. Assistant Loco Pilot. Another woman railway official, Sweta Ghune will be positioned as ‘on duty guard’ and will wave the green flag to give clearance to the train. Apart from them, all other roles will also be carried out by women staff, including TTE, RPF Personnel and Electric Technician. Apart from Deccan Queen, Koyna express will also have an all-women team to operate its functioning.