No of eunuchs evicted from trains 35
The next time ladies travelling on the Central Railway need help in dealing with pesky urchins or noisy students in the first class compartment, they can turn to the Tejaswinis for help.
Railway officers are hoping that these squads of female ticket examiners, who are clad in black gowns, and female constables will be a comforting presence for ladies travelling in local trains.
"The brief given to them is to be a visible presence on stations and trains to instill a sense of confidence among female commuters. This is the first time that the Indian Railways has had a special mechanism set up to zero in on the peculiar problems faced by female commuters," said Central Railway's Chief Public Relations Officer Mukul Marwah.
So far, 11 Tejaswini squads have been constituted, each with four female ticket examiners and two lady constables of the Government Railway Police (GRP). Since they started work on August 17, the squads claim to have been fairly successful in booking ticketless travellers and evicting nuisance makers (see table).
Railway officials said the squads were a result of the realisation that the GRP was not a very visible presence on platforms and was of little help with problems like urchins and young boys travelling in ladies' compartments. The squads will also help during the day when there is no mandatory police presence in the ladies' compartments, adds Mahendra Birhade, assistant commercial manager.
Though they have been operating for less than a month, their work has already earned them their share of criticism. Ticket examiner Bhageshree Khopde explains that when the defaulters are children, the commuters are often divided in terms of action to be taken. "Women complain to us about school children travelling in the first class without a valid pass. But if we try to evict them, other commuters accuse us of being cruel to them," says Khopde.
A squad stationed at Wadala Road station detained over a dozen children from MKES Vidyalaya, Nyaneshwar Vidyalaya, SIES and LTMG School for the Deaf, in just under an hour for travelling without a valid ticket in the ladies' first class compartment.
"Parents take advantage of the sympathy we have for children, especially the handicapped and let them travel without a valid pass," said Assistant Chief Ticket Checker Padmini Sabnani.
Such children cannot be fined because they don't have any money. "The other alternative is to take them to the juvenile court. But we avoid doing so. We detain them for some time and let them go. We have now informed some of these schools about their students travelling without a valid pass," says Chief Ticket Inspector S M Pongallu.
But detention invites barbs from commuters like Abhay Pande, who says, "Do you think the children can travel in the general compartment? I don't think it is right to detain them."
