Soon, all-women TTE crew on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi!
What's the story
The Railways is taking major strides towards women empowerment. Recently, it launched all-women crews at Mumbai's Matunga and Jaipur's Gandhinagar railway stations.
Western Railways (WR) is now launching a unique scheme: soon, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi will be manned entirely by female TTEs!
The decision was taken after officials found women to be more "honest" after an experiment.
Here's all about it.
Experiment
Decision taken after two experiments proved successful
The idea was finalized after related experiments. Two male travelling ticket examiners (TTE) on Shatabdi were suspended for malpractices.
WR replaced them with women. It was a success: daily revenue from penalties increased from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000!
They then deployed an all-women crew.
According to senior divisional railway commissioner Aarti Singh Parihar, that led to a 66% jump in daily earnings.
Quote
'Women are honest and experiment proves it'
The initiative is Parihar's brainchild. "Women are honest and the earnings on the day we held the trial run with all-women TTE staff proves it," she said. Male staff is known for pocketing some of their collection, she added.
Initiative
From March 8, six women on duty on six-hour shifts
Plans are to deploy the all-women crew on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi on Women's Day on March 8.
Six women TTEs will be duty at one time.
Working duration will be roughly six hours and 20 minutes.
The train leaves the Mumbai Central Railway station at 6:25am and reaches Ahmedabad by 12:45pm. It then starts from Ahmedabad at 2:40pm and reaches Mumbai by 9:20pm.
Risks
Despite challenges, officials hopeful of expanding initiative to other trains
Officials are hopeful of expanding the scheme to more trains, but there are challenges.
Vijeta Dhavan, Shatabdi TTE, said, "Working on suburban trains is difficult because passengers are argumentative. On the Shatabdi...ticketless travellers usually pay the fine without a fuss."
Moreover, overnight journeys will be riskier than a six-hour shift.
But Parihar has begun counseling women staff for the overnight Rajdhani Express too.
Stations
All-women crews recently deployed at two railway stations in India
Recently, Gandhinagar became the first non-suburban railway station to be run entirely by women.
For now, there will be 40 employees deployed in various positions including RPF, ticket booking staff, ticket checkers and more.
There are 30 women deployed at Matunga.
It even gained a place in the Limca Book of Records for being the first suburban station with an all-women staff.