RPF women staff help pregnant passenger deliver baby on platform

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, June 3

For pregnant Havanti Devi, travelling from Kathua to Chhapra (Bihar) on board 05098 Jammu Tawi-Bhagalpur Festival Special train, women force members of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) turned out to be angels. The woman passenger in coach S-2 of the train, being in advanced stage of pregnancy, developed labour pain as the train chugged in at the Ludhiana railway station in wee hours on Wednesday.

The RPF women team, comprising Sub-Inspector Rita Devi along with Constables Dholi Yadav and Priya, deployed as the special team ‘sakhi’ under the ‘suraksha kavach’ campaign, helped the woman alight from the train and sensing emergency, provided a screen of bed sheets around her for delivering the child as the arrival of ambulance was delayed.

“We had heard the woman crying in pain during routine checking of coaches and helped her get down on the platform number one. As the labour pangs advanced and child birth seemed imminent, we provided a cover of bed sheets and helped Harvanti Devi deliver a girl child on the railway platform itself,” said a beaming SI Rita Devi.

She said the woman also got unconscious for some time during childbirth but all went well by the end. As ambulance took some time in arriving, Constables Dholi and Priya took the mother and child in an auto-rickshaw to Civil Hospital where both of them were found in good condition by the doctors.

Divisional Railway Manager of the Ferozepur Division of the Northern Railway Rajesh Aggarwal has commended the women force team of the RPF saying they had shown exemplary presence of mind, sense of commitment to duty and consideration towards fellow human beings.

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