Finally, some good news for those mid-week blues! There is a train station in Jaipur which will be run by an all-women crew, a team of 40 women will make up the station staff. The Gandhinagar train station at Jaipur is the main line between Jaipur and Delhi, hence it’s a huge step in both women empowerment and women safety. “The entire activity on the railway station will be managed by women, that includes operations, which basically means operating the panel where you align the tracks according to the route of the trains. Then there are commercial operations like selling of tickets and ticket collection,” said Soumya Mathur, Divisional Railway Manager, Jaipur. What about the security? Well, they have that covered as well, “We will have lady constables patrolling the platforms,” Soumya added in an interview with a leading news channel.
In addition to this, to ensure the safety of the passengers, the Railways Protection Force has decided to post 11 women police personnel at the police station that is attached to Gandhinagar’s railway station.
This station is the second station in India to take this huge step, first being Matunga in Mumbai. “Train movement is my job: which train is to be received on which track,” said station master Angel Stella. “All trains are important to us whether passenger or goods. The safety of so many people depends on us and goods worth crores are transported by train, so our main aim is to facilitate the safe movement of trains,” she explained.
The women will work eight-hour shifts in a rotation and aren’t afraid of any challenges they may face. As Stella put it, “Women are not less than anyone.”
Good going, Jaipur!
Images: NDTV
