New Delhi. Women train drivers have to seek permission from the male loco pilot through walkie-talkie for ‘washroom break’ while on duty. He has protested against this practice, calling it ‘shameful and unsafe’. A woman loco pilot said on Sunday, ‘If we have to go to the washroom, we have to tell the male loco pilot, who informs the station master. Then the station master further communicates this to the control department, which manages the operation of the trains.
The woman said, ‘All these conversations also reach dozens of other officers of the range through walkie-talkies. This message reaches everywhere at the station that a female loco pilot wants to go to the toilet. Women drivers said this current practice, adopted informally, is ‘shameful and tantamount to compromising their safety.’
According to him, 90 percent of the more than 1700 women train drivers employed in the Indian Railways are assistant loco pilots, who work as assistants to male loco pilots of passenger trains or goods trains. Another woman loco pilot said, ‘Once when I was on duty with a male driver on a goods train, I had to go through this ordeal. In a passenger train, a driver can go to the toilet in any compartment, but in case of a goods train, you have to get down at the station.
The woman claimed that at the time when she got out of the engine and came to the station, some officers, who were already aware of the request through walkie-talkie messages, were watching her and she felt very uncomfortable. Many women loco pilots said it is unsafe for them to even get out of the engine to use toilets at small stations, which are usually located in isolated areas.
Ashok Sharma, assistant general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), said, ‘In the last few years, hundreds of new girls have joined the profession of train driving and since they were unaware of these challenges, they are now under stress. Many of them avoid drinking water before starting their duty and even during duty they avoid consuming any liquid. This causes dehydration and many other lifestyle related diseases. In such a situation, the condition of women loco pilots is very pathetic.
Many women loco pilots said that since the onset of summer this time, there have been some incidents in which women guards and drivers fainted during duty hours because despite the high temperature, they continued to perform duty without drinking water.
Tags: Indian Railways, Women Loco Pilot
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 12, 2024, 21:53 IST
