Strap: Few dedicated coaches, increase in female workforce, juggling multiple duties lead to clashes, say commuters
Mumbai: A few days ago, a video of women doing the garba in a ladies’ compartment of a Mumbai local thrilled social media observers. The joy was short-lived as another clip of women engaged in a violent scuffle on a Thane-Panvel local on Thursday dropped on our timelines. At the cost of oversimplification, while the two irreconcilable images symbolise the highs and lows of survival, the violent act also dents the romantic notion of roughing it out to make it good in Mumbai.
While Thursday’s skirmish led to the arrest of a 27-year-old female passenger for injuring another, it also brought forward the issue of a routine recurrence – combats and scuffles in ladies’ compartments, especially during peak hours, are routine occurrences.
Numbers speak loudly – according to the Government Railway Police (GRP), the helpline, 1512, has recorded 90 calls from female passengers of Central Railway (CR) this year with complaints of physical fights and arguments; the Western Railway (WR) recorded 70 similar calls.
On October 6, an argument over securing a seat went out of hand between two women, leading to a brawl and physical assault. Constable Sharada Ugale, who tried to intervene, ended up a victim of the assault and had to get three stitches, her wounds are still bleeding.
When cops intervene
“I am yet to be discharged from the hospital, as the bleeding is yet to stop,” said Ugale. “When I entered the compartment, I saw the two women — Arzu Khan (27) and her mother Gulnar Zuber Khan (50) — fighting with another co-passenger Sneha Devde (30). I tried to resolve the fight but the mother-daughter duo just kept getting violent, and started pulling Devde’s hair. Devde too retaliated.”
Arzu was miffed with Devde as the latter thought she had asked her 10-year-old to give up her seat. “She had only asked her to shift a little and make space for her, as is known to happen during peak hours. Co-passengers often seat kids in their laps, but this petty issue blew up into a big fight,” said Ugale.
Ugale’s pleas for help went in vain. “If police fail to solve the problem, they are blamed. But see what happened – when I stepped up, Arzu snatched a flower pot that was in Devde’s hand and hit me with it,” said the head constable of Vashi GRP, insisting she entered the compartment only because the co-passengers in the train were shouting for help.
The case was registered against the mother and daughter, the latter in Byculla jail now. “Petty fights are amicably solved. But this incident was one-of-a-kind,” said senior PI Sambhaji Katare from Vashi GRP.
Anil Kadam, senior police inspector, GRP, Borivali, said, “The patrolling staff witnesses fights every day, but not all escalate to reach the police station or the helpline.”
Call records
Between 2021 and 22, the GRP received 35,000 calls on their helpline – almost 400 daily; most calls, however, were enquiries for forgotten or lost mobile phones and bags.
The helpline number has also received 90 and 70 calls from CR and WR passengers, as of October 6, 2022. All were calls by female passengers witnessing cat-fight or scuffles or worse, complaining about violence from another passenger. Most of these calls were recorded between May and September 2022. In September alone, CR recorded 14 complaints by female passengers and WR reported 17 such complaints.
In 2021, CR reported 25 complaints while WR had 18. Officials attributed the low figures in that year to lockdown during the second national wave of Covid-19, as well as work-from-home (WFH) option given to many professionals.
The female workforce
Women passenger associations and commuters unanimously believe that a special committee needs to be formed to urge authorities to look into better provisions for women travelling in trains. Lata Argade, president, Tejaswini Mahila Railway Pravasi Sangh, said, “Women travel from all across the Mumbai metropolitan region to different parts of the city for work. Unlike earlier, when there were only 15% to 25% working women, nowadays 90% of women are educated and are working professionals. The seating or the number of coaches available to them has not matched up.”
“The government is not looking at expanding the provisions to ease travel for women. The authorities may focus on posting women government employees closer to their homes or allow flexible working hours, so that trains are not overcrowded and the women can manage work and household responsibilities equally,” said Argade, who has been travelling on CR for the 39 years.
Agade noted that most fights occur during the morning peak hour, as the women boarding trains are already exhausted after completing their household chores. “They have another struggle to get into a train at the right time to worry about – it’s exhausting. If they do not find a seat, they snap. They also have a long day at work to go through,” she said.
Some commuters also feel they are not allocated enough space during peak hours, which leads to overcrowding. Rashmi Salian, a regular commuter on WR for 23 years, said, “Women returning home often gone through a hectic day at work and are already thinking about the dinner menu and other household chores that need to be attended to. Most commuters are from the middle-class who cannot afford cooks or get tiffin services. So along with all this, imagine if a woman is facing menstrual cramps – it does impact her mental health.”
She also noted, thanks to their upgraded mobile phones, women are glued to their screens with earphones plugged – no one bothers to see if a senior citizen or a pregnant woman is standing by their side, in need of a seat. “I have been noticing this over the last few years. These problems also arise as there are few ladies’ special services and just three coaches for women commuters, despite the increasing number of women travellers,” added Salian.
CR has eight ladies’ special trains that run along harbour and trans harbour lines. “From the overall 37 lakh passengers on CR, 15% constitute women passengers,” said an officer from CR. Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer (PRO), WR, said, “The overall seating capacity in a 12-car rake is 1170, of which 273 seats are for women. This makes for 23.33% in each train on the suburban section. In the 15 coach trains we have proposed modification of the ladies coach by increasing 25 seats in each train. There are 10 ladies’ special services on WR.”
Amita Bhide, professor, Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, said, “Before stereotyping men and women, one must focus on the economic geography of the city and understand whether there are appropriate, affordable and accessible commuting options. Present policies focus on investing in roads and metro services, with no focus on railways, which is commonly used and is the most affordable facility.” She called for an adequate eco-system around railways, especially in the extended suburbs. “Lack of such facilities force people into unsavoury situations where they tend to become insensitive to circumstances,” said Bhide.
(Inputs by Sajana Nambiar)
Case study
‘I was hit hard when I asked to stand by the door’
Thirty-eight-year-old Nazrana Pillai has been a commuter on local trains for 15 years. A victim of physical attack by a co-passenger in September, 2019, Pillai for a long time remained apprehensive before boarding a train every day – an innocuous routine affair — since the day of the incident.
The incident took place between Lower Parel and Dadar station, when she was attacked by a co-passenger on her hands and ribs, following which she suffered multiple scratches and bruises.
“I had boarded the train at Lower Parel around 7pm and had to alight at Dadar. As the compartment was very crowded, I asked the woman standing at the door to allow me some space to stand so that I could alight easily at the next station. In response, she caught hold of my waist near the ribs and started physically abusing me,” recalled Pillai. “I wanted her to get down with me at Dadar so that I could lodge a complaint. Realising my intent, she became even more aggressive and bit me on my left arm. I managed to alight with her at Mahim, but she fled immediately. By then I had taken her picture which helped cops arrest her.”
It took around one month for Pillai’s wounds to heal and recover from the trauma. An FIR was lodged in Bandra against the accused woman co-passenger. “Some strong measures need to be put in place so that women do not face such inhuman acts,” added Pillai.
A video clip of Wednesday’s incident has been doing the rounds on social media, but Pillai decided not to watch it.