Women may be barred from risky railway jobs

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways may soon bar women from getting certain hazardous jobs in the national transport monolith, as it has sent a note to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to change rules to allow it to hire only men as loco pilots, guards in trains and gangmen, who physically inspect tracks.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 15

The Indian Railways may soon bar women from getting certain hazardous jobs in the national transport monolith, as it has sent a note to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to change rules to allow it to hire only men as loco pilots, guards in trains and gangmen, who physically inspect tracks.

Citing complaints, which it received, outlining unsafe and tough working conditions for women working in these positions, a senior Railway Board official said: “We have written to the DoPT suggesting it to exclude women as eligible candidate for a few jobs considered hazardous.”

While only a miniscule percentage (around 3) of woman is part of around 13.5 lakh Railways staff, the official said: “We still can’t either risk or discriminate on the basis of gender, as drivers, guards and trackmen are supposed to work, at times even for 24 hours at a stretch.”

Meanwhile, in a bid to showcase modern facilities at pan-India level ahead of upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Railways has decided to give its divisional managers a corpus of Rs 20 crore each to develop one station under them as a model station by March.

Officials at the Rail Bhawan said all 68 divisional railway managers had been instructed to identify and develop a station of their choice in areas of passenger amenities and infrastructure such as provision and maintenance of lifts, foot over-bridge, seats, platforms, availability of drinking water. Each would be developed at a cost of Rs 20 crore, they added.

The aim is to develop railways stations across the network in phases, as the DRM is empowered to not only choose the station but also decide on the works to be completed and thus the onus would be on the division to complete the works within the given timeline.

Among the stations that are likely to undergo a facelift are Ambala, Delhi Main, Udaipur, Bikaner, Mathura, Varanasi city, Lonavala, Pune, Patna, Howrah, Allahabad, Warangal, Raipur, Ahmedabad and Mysore.