Abuses, threats, and assaults are almost daily work hazards for Sangeeta*, a 20-year-old toll collector at Kherki Daula toll plaza on Delhi-Gurugram Expressway. She is among the 10 women that comprised the first batch of female toll collectors hired through Eagle Hunter Solutions Limited in Uttar Pradesh and deployed at the toll plaza in April 2017.
Among other things, the move to deploy women toll collectors at Kherki Daula toll plaza — arguably one of the most notorious across India because of frequent conflicts between motorists and toll collectors — was aimed at bringing down the cases of violence.
A steady decrease
Millennium City Expressways Private Limited toll operation manager Mohammad Sohrab Khan told The Hindu that the steady decrease in the number of misbehaviour cases over the past two years suggested that the move had partially paid-off.
He said there was a 30%-40% fall in the incidents of conflicts mostly because the women toll collectors, unlike their male counterparts, were less aggressive and polite in their dealings with the toll users. Also, the company’s retention rate for these women employees was higher than the men. He, however, claimed that the incidents of misbehaviour were still relatively very high and a total of 60 complaintshad already been reported this year so far.
The number of women employees, a majority of them toll collectors, has increased to double over the past two years. As of now, there are 40 women employees at the Kherki Daula toll plaza, including two deployed in the control room and one for audit.
“Since the staff in the control room and the audit need to interact with the toll collectors, a need was felt for women staff there as well. The control room staff are in constant touch with the toll collectors deployed at the lanes and are the first point of contact in case of any emergency,” said Mr. Khan.
Abuses vs perks
Working as a toll collector for almost a year now, Bhawna* from Uttar Pradesh’s Agra said sense of financial independence, the flexible and short duty hours, support from the staff in case of an emergency and perks, such as free accommodation, were the reasons why most of the women toll collectors continued to work despite the cases of scuffle and the constant fear of being assaulted. Most of the women toll collectors maintained that their families did not know about the hassles of working at the toll plaza, else they would not have allowed them.
In recent cases, a 40-year-old gym owner, Manjeet from Shikopur village, had threatened to rape and kill a woman toll collector in June this year when she asked him for the documents to allow free passage.
Manjeet, later arrested, was the co-accused in a 2011 murder case wherein his friend Vijay Veer had shot dead a toll collector, Umesh Kumar Pandey, at Kheri Daula over payment of toll charges. In yet another incident of misbehaviour over refusal to pay the toll charges, a 26-year-old woman collector was allegedly slapped and abused by a villager this past month. The accused, Rahul, later arrested was also the resident of Shikohpur village.
Most of the cases of violence pertain to the residents of 31 villages in and around Kherki Daula toll plaza that have been exempted from the toll payment on account of their land having been acquired for the construction of the highway. Besides, there is a sizeable number of cases of impersonation every year wherein motorists with fake IDs seek free passage and resort to violent behaviour. Besides the deployment of female staff, the toll authorities, in a bid to reduce the cases of the altercation, have distributed exempt tags to 7,000 villagers to avoid their interaction with the toll collectors. Even the commercial vehicles registered in these villages have been exempted. The local bus operators have also been given Fastags with monthly passes offering huge discounts.
Mr. Khan claimed that impersonation was a huge menace with people showing fake IDs of police personnel and army men and fake registration certificates to seek free passage. “We have so far seized 500 fake registration certificates and 400 fake IDs this year. Every year, the number comes around 1,000,” said Mr. Khan.
Though only a couple of cases of violence were reported at Sarai toll plaza during Mr. Khan’s stint there as manager for almost four years, he said a case of violence was reported every 10-15 days on an average at Kherki Daula.
He attributed it to the villagers in Gurugram being financially well-off due to exorbitant cost of land and having a steady income through rent.
Political clout
Besides, the locals wielded political clout and the police were reluctant to take action against them, claimed Mr. Khan.
“Even before the matter reaches the police, the accused uses their political connection to ensure that a case is not registered. The fact that police have not registered a case in even 5% of the complaints is enough evidence,” he said. Gurugram Police spokesperson Subhash Boken said an FIR was registered in case any cognisable offence is made out in a complaint after preliminary investigation. He rejected the charge that the police act under political influence.
Toll companies across the country have been experimenting with hiring women as the collectors over the past few years and the response has been satisfactory. Now women toll collectors are a common sight. Mr. Khan said the toll companies were going to continue with it despite the hiccups.
*Names of all women toll collectors have been changed to protect their identities.
