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        All India Comittee of railway women workers met in Mumbai on 16th November, 2006

          “Women Workers in Indian Railway – A Report”    by Tajinder  Kaur,

            The All India Committee of Railway Women Workers met on 16^th November, 2005 at 10.00 hrs. and deliberated on various problems of women employees. About 450 women delegates participated in the Conference. The General Secretaries of all Zonal Railways put a colour to the conference by their presence. Smt. D. Shaleel, Chairperson, All India Committee of Railway Women Workers presided over the meeting.

             Smt. Mrinal Gore, an eminent social worker and ex. Member of Parliament, attended the meeting as Chief Guest and inaugurated the Conference. During her inaugural speech, she narrated her close relation with the Railway fraternity. She opined that whenever new train services are introduced, staff should be increased along with necessary infrastructure. She also stated that more amenities are to be provided to the women employees and gave a piece of advice to the women employees that they should empower themselves by joining the trade unions and congratulated the leadership of AIRF for giving very good encouragement to the women employees.

             Smt. D. Shaleel in her Presidential address reviewed the working of various Zonal Women Committees and emphasised the need to observe the 25^th November, 2005 as U.N. Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.She stated that the women workers were very much vulnerable to physical and non-physical violence due to the nature of their strenuous jobs especially in night shifts.       

             Smt. Tejinder Kaur while presenting a paper on the Annual Report of women workers of the Indian Railways stated that women should wear white ribbons on 25^th November, 2005 while observing the “Day to Eliminate of Violence and harassment against Women”. She also stated that the “Women’s Day” is celebrated as “Women’s Empowerment Day” on 8^th March by the AIRF. She also spoke on the issues discussed in the ITF Asia/Pacific Regional Conference held at New Delhi on 24-25 September, 2005 regarding sexual harassment, poor representation of women at decision making level, lack of proper amenities at workplace etc.   

            Smt. Champa Verma, Chairperson, Hind Mazdoor Sabha(HMS) also spoke on the anti-labour policies of the present government and exhorted all women employees to gird up their loins for joining the All India Indefinite General Strike of Railway employees which was going to be announced during January 2006 basing it on the government’s stand on our main demands including constitution of VI CPC. 

             Com. J.P. Chaubey, General Secretary, AIRF lauded women’s participation and exhorted them to educate and motivate the workers at the grassroot level for the impending Railway’s Indefinite General Strike. He also stated that some State Governments and also Bank employees had got their pay revision, whereas the Central Government were very much inimical to our just demand.       

             Smt. Saroj Dixit, Contact Person, AIRF gave a brief report on the work done by the All India Committee of Railway Women Workers through AIRF in taking up the issues of women workers at the Railway Board’s level.
            All the Zonal Chairpersons submitted their reports about the activities in their respective zones. The Committee, after due deliberation on various grievances of the women workers resolved as follows:-  

1. Be ready for the All India Indefinite General Strike of Railways and organise strike ballot as per the directives of AIRF.

2. Promote leadership qualities amongst the women.
3. Meet once in every six months with their own leave and privilege passes to review their activities.
4. Appeal the AIRF leadership to extend the All India Committee of Railway Women Workers’ Conference by one day, i.e. two days’ conference here afterwards.

             Smt. D. Shaleel thanked the leaders of the Western Railway Employees Union and the Chairperson, Zonal Women Committee of Western Railway Employees Union, Smt. Bhavnaben Raval, Smt. Vijaya Nandoskar and Smt. Anjali and their entire team for their hospitality and nice arrangements for conducting the meeting. The meeting concluded after thanking the Chair.

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                           “Women Workers in Indian Railway – A Report”  
                                            Presented by Tajinder  Kaur,

                                   Convener of National Committee of Women Workers, AIRF

                 Indian Railway consists of 1.5 million Railway employees which include about 100 Thousand women working in different status from Group A to group D services. All the women in Group C &D, numbering about 92 thousand, are members of A.I.R.F. Women workers are coordinating with and assisting male workers in their day to day Union work.

             With a view to give representation to the women at the decision making levels, there was a demand from women workers was to form a women committee. At present the number of women at the decision making levels is almost negligible. Some of the affiliates of A.I.R.F. in the Zonal Railways have women office bearers in the Unions but most unions are still lagging behind. Their plea is that women are not keen to come forward as leaders and they have no time  to share responsibility in the Union. However, after persistent demands & pressure from women workers, A.I.R.F. organized the first meeting of women activities. Of the 50 women activists who were invited to this meeting, 39 attended from the different affiliated zones. At the end of this meeting the national committee of Railway women workers was formed. The undersigned was also elected as member of National Committee from Northern Railway. First National committee meeting was held on 20/21.09.2000. In order to facilitate the functioning and regular meeting of the women’s committee, A.I.R.F. decided to cut down its own working Committee meetings so that the women’s Committee representatives can avail of the privilege passes and special leave. We are very thankful to the AIRF for this gesture. At this meeting, AIRF had insisted that such women’s structures be formed at each Zonal level & Divisional level by the affiliated unions. However, only some of the unions have reported action taken in this regard. By way of this report, I would like to once again call on all the affiliated unions give feed back to the AIRF Office.

             At the National women Committee meeting held at Siliguri N. F. Railway on 27.11.2000, 31 National executives committee members attended. The attendance of Women workers at the WREU Conference on 29^th October 2003 at Ratlam was massive. Other unions also held their Women Workers’ Conference but I did not get their reports in the AIRF Office from where I am operating.

            8^th March,2001 International Women Day was organized by almost all Zonal Railways with full enthusiasm. On this occasion Rally, meetings, seminars and many medical check-up and guidance camps were organized. A number of reports, news clippings etc. were received by A.I.R.F. from all corners which were sent to I.T.F. regional office at Delhi.

             A National Women’s Committee meeting was held at Mathurs on 26.11.2001 preceding the 77^th A.I.R.F. General convention. Smt. Shaleel chaired the meeting in which 114 women delegates participated. Sh. U.M. Purohit, President A.I.R.F./I.T.F. while addressing the women delegates stated that A.I.R.F. is giving priority to women’s issues and activities and providing opportunities to women to participate in the union activities. However, despite all the support, women are still not coming forward. Sh. J.P. Chaubey, General Secretary A.I.R.F. congratulated all women employees for attending the meeting in large numbers and stated that the problems of women are very different and they can be better understood and appreciated by women only and as such the women committee have been formed to give them a platform to discuss the problems, stand united and be ready to take up the future challenges. Though AIRF leadership has been cooperative, we will still expect more support from them for all times to come.

             8^th March, 2002 was observed as “Women’s Basic Rights Day” all over the India, under the banner of ITF Campaign – Women Transporting the World. The two main aims of our campaign were:

(i)                  To organize Young women transport workers;

(ii)                To increase the activities designed to fight for women transport workers right.

    It encouraged affiliated Unions and their branches to participate fully in  this  Campaign by mobilization of women workers from all over the Indian Railways. Reports from all Zonal Railways on the successful observation of international women day meetings were received.

              The national committee of Railway women workers met on 26^th November 2002 at Chennai. Here 25^th November 2002 celebrated as International Day for the elimination of violence against women. The ITF Women’s Conference in Vancouver has passed a resolution seeking support from all its affiliated unions to observe this day.

             “Women transporting the World” I.T.F. campaign Day 8^th March 2003 was celebrated all over Indian Railway. All Zonal Railways, their Divisions and branches celebrated the day by holding mass meetings. All moist all leading news papers covered their news. It is understood that by uniting women, Unions can be strengthened. On this occasion some Zonal Unions also published a souvenir.

             In the various meetings being held, the AIRF Women’s Committed has discussed the multiple issues confronting the women. Some of the problems which have been highlighted  and stand out are:-

1)      Multiple responsibilities of women workers – Home work,  official Duties and effective  union and  social  participation.

          2)      Traditional Role  and  stereo  type – Allegation, taboos and cultural Inhibitions make it difficult for women to break in to male environment. 

        3)      Trade Unions environment – It is often male dominated where Women’s voice is either ignored or not given weightage.

          4)      Lack of family co-operation.
          5)      Lack of confidence.
          6)      And many more…..
          Even though in the past women workers in Indian Railways have made their presence felt in traditional office oriented jobs, in recent years they have been entering into non-traditional areas such as Assistant Drivers and ASM’s and in the management side as Engineers & Operating Managers. This is a welcome sign. As the number of women workers is slowly increasing, we need to ensure that conditions of work are congenial and meet the minimum standards of specific requirement for the women. In Railways though we have equal right in job opportunity, we have still to see that our sisters in the work place get to be treated fairly and with dignity.

            AIRF Women have been participating in a number of international activities organized by the ITF. During the last 3 years, the ITF in co-operation with the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation has been organizing sub regional women’s seminars. In March 2001, Saroj Dixit, Sangamitra Bhuyian   Bhagyavathi and Chitra Dey participated in the South Asian Sub-Regional Seminar for Women Transport Workers held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Thereafter, in May 2002, Saroj Dixit, Sangamitra Bhuyian, Bhayavathi and Sathyavani participated in the South Asian Skills Training & Developing Campaigns Workshop held at Colombo, Sri Lanka. In the 2^nd Skills Training Seminar, also held in Colombo in May,2003, Harjeet Kaur, C.Krishna Kumari, Renuka Lakshmi and Indira Priyadarshini participated.

              Besides this Saroj  Dixit and N. Shanthi participated in the ITF-FES Asia-Pacific Regional Women’s Seminar held in Bangkok   in September 2001. In August 2002, N. Shanthi, Usha Balasubramanian and N. Gunavathi participated in the ITF Women’s Conference held at Vancouver in which N. Shanthi, Usha Balasubramanian and N. Gunavathi participated IN THE itf Women’s Conference held at Vancouver in which N. Shanthi was elected to the Women’s Committee of the ITF. Saroj Dixit represented the AIRF at the ITF Asia-Pacific Women’s Meeting in Singapore in September 2003.

            A number of education programmes exclusively for women have also been organized and there is now a demand from the newly formed Zones to conduct education activities for their women. ITF Delhi Office is encouraging this development and is facilitating the programmes.

            At the 40^th Congress of the ITF, a resolution on violence against women for endorsed calling all the affiliated unions to mark November 25^th as the international Day for the Elimination of violence again  Women. AIRF has also been observing this day and various activities are being organized by all the zones. 

            In order to support the work plan of the ITF Women’s Committee, it will be our endeavour to continue to organizing the International Women’s Day on the 8^th March as the Basic Rights Day for Women, ensure women’s involvement in all activities, promote and develop gender sensitization programmes for men and women and ensure women’s presence at all levels, most importantly the decision making levels.

            This meeting is being held on the side line of the AIRF’s annual convention which is being held in the city of Kolkata from 8^th to 10^th December 2003 in which we have also been invited to participate after transacting our business on 7^th and 8^th forenoon. I hope the Kolkata meeting of the Nation Committee of Women Workers will be another landmark in organizing the railway women workers in all the railway and Production Units into a well knit organization under the leadership of AIRF affiliated unions. I assure you that the AIRF office will give undivided attention to sort out our problems. I am also always available in the AIRF Office and you can contact me for any problems. 

             I am greatly indebted to the AIRF Leaders, particularly the President, Bro. Umraomal Purohit and General Secretary, Bro. J.P. Chaubey, all the colleagues of the AIRF office and the Delhi office of the ITF particularly Bro. Mahendra Sharma, Sangam Tripathy and sister Nishi Kapahi whose guidance was always available and I hope their guidance and cooperation will continue.

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