For G. Sasikala (34), a railway keyman, the day starts at 7 a.m. She walks along Rajapalayam-Shencottah broad gauge line near Pambukoil Shandy. She carries a huge hammer in her right hand and a big spanner and flags on her left shoulder.
Despite being burdened with heavy tools and treading over sleepers and ballasts, her sharp eyes are engrossed on the rails, their welds and numerous elastic rail clips. For, she is conscious about her role in ensuring safety of trains and goods that chug on the tracks.
Not just this young woman, but her elder counterpart, M. Shanmugathai, at 55 years, too trudges on the tracks every day. Their job is to hunt for any crack on the rails or failure of welds and loosely fitting clips and set them right. The toughest part is not in carrying the heavy tools or swinging the long-handled hammer. But walking all alone on the tracks in remote spots. On many days, they would not find any human being around in the mid section.
Every day, they take care of the tracks and ensure that the clips fasten the rails with sleepers and also apply grease to at least 80 clips. Their role gets more important when they find a major weld failure. Their first job would be to stop movement of trains from either side. They run on the direction from where the first train would come for at least 30 metres and plant a flag in the middle of the track. And then plant another on the other side too.
Women railway employees, who don important roles in ensuring safe running of trains, at work. Pictures shot at Madurai railway junction.
“If any manned railway gate is available nearby, the station master could be alerted about rail failure through the railway phone at the gate,” Ms. Sasikala says. Otherwise, they would place detonators on the track 600 metres away from the track to alert the trains.
And there is another set of women, who also have their jobs on the tracks to maintain signals. Theirs is a delicate job that needs specialised training in electronic gadgets. Thought these technicians from Signals and Telecommunication department are accompanied by male colleagues, they need to go on the tracks round-the-clock to check every signal, point, track circuit, electronic equipment, including data logger, and batteries all 365 days.
“We work in three shifts and walk quite a distance to check every signal and point that are operated from cabins,” says K. Vidya (30), a technician. When there is signal failure, they alert the Station Master to stop trains. “Pressure mounts on us during signal failure, as we need to work against time to maintain punctuality,” says D. Rajeswari (38), Senior Section Engineer. Like Ms. Vidya, N. Kokila and K. Saraswathi also walk on bridges across the Vaigai even at the dead of night to check signal gadgets.
Ms. Shanmugathai and Ms. Sasikala are never bogged down as they have realised their responsibilities. “I know that my role is important in safe running of trains that carry thousands of passengers,” Ms. Shanmugathai says. Her uniform gives the courage to walk in mid section without fear. “A thief will snatch a gold chain even on busy streets, but people keep a distance from me as they look at me as a representative of the Indian Railways,” she says with pride.
A few other jobs are like that of M. Vijayalakshmi and M.V. Divya, who are Station Masters. The job of Ms. Divya is at the signal cabin of Madurai yard, one of the biggest, in putting the rakes of trains and goods wagons and also pilot engines on the right track while shunting. It calls for total attention for long hours.
Ms. Vijyalakshmi, SM at Uchipuli station, has a different role of managing passengers. She is the station coordinator with responsibilities of all departments. “It is a challenging job that has predominantly remained with men. But, it does not mean male members alone can do it,” she says. The SMs have to answer a lot of queries from passengers. “The most demanding time is when we have to deal with people with mental illness who stray into railway stations,” she says.
With different roles of responsibilities, these women have indeed made a mark.
