Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
For more than a week, women loco pilots across the country have been wearing black armbands during duty to protest the death of a woman assistant loco pilot in the Malda division, West Bengal, and to highlight women’s unsafe working conditions. This assistant loco pilot had taken a bathroom break and was crossing the track to return to the engine when she was run over by a train. She could not see the incoming train because of a curvature in the tracks.
Women loco pilots in Malda, Delhi, Pune, Nagpur, Jabalpur, Ghaziabad, Prayagraj and other divisions have been wearing black armbands and have planned to submit a memorandum to the Railway Ministry to demand better working conditions.
The Indian Railways employs around 2,000 women loco pilots. Loco pilots in Indian Railways have to work for 12-14 hours without toilet facilities inside train engines. Women workers are worse affected by these conditions, and they commonly suffer from complications such as urinary tract infections, uterine fibroids, and high blood pressure.
For several years, loco pilots have been demanding the provision of toilet facilities inside engines. This need is particularly acute for women, given that they have special needs every month. The Indian Railways had introduced locomotives fitted with bio-toilets in 2016. Although more than 8 years have passed since then, only a small fraction of locomotives have toilets.
Further, women loco pilots have explained that the ladders to locomotives are high and are not designed for the height of women. Thus, they often have to climb up and jump out of locomotives to attend to technical faults, even in the dark and even in remote areas. While some pregnant women seek office duty when they are carrying, this is not granted to all. In some cases, women have suffered injuries and even miscarriages because of this work.
A protesting loco pilot said, “Despite tall claims of the rail administration, even today, female loco pilots who are in train operation have to wait for the dark to answer nature’s call alongside the rail track.” Another loco pilot said, “Female frontline workers are demanding pick-up and drop facilities for late night or early morning shifts, leaves during early days of pregnancy when chances of miscarriage are quite high, and washroom and lunch breaks during duty, among other things.”
It is a matter of tremendous shame that women workers in the Indian Railways are having to demand for basic facilities such as toilets. The death of the woman assistant loco pilot in Malda division was entirely preventable. The provision of toilets, washroom and lunch breaks, leaves during pregnancy, maternity and paternity leaves, etc. are basic rights of all workers. The right to health is a basic right of all workers.
The struggle for better conditions is not the struggle of women alone. Men and women workers in the railways, all other sectors, and passengers and common citizens should unitedly and strongly reject such unsafe working conditions and fight for better facilities for women and all workers.