Women making a mark in other fields as well in India
India has been empowering women in different spheres of life. Their contribution in nation building has been remarkably high.
The Central Railway recently decided to hand over the Matunga railway station, in central Mumbai, to all women staff. The decision is likely to be implemented soon.
Once handed over to women, Matunga will etch its name in Railways’ history. It will be the first railway station in the city as well as the first on the entire network of the Central Railway to be run by all-women staff.
As of now, it will be a pilot project. If women live up to the faith reposed on them, the Railways may consider handing over more stations to women in future.
Matunga station will have over 30 women staffers, including 11 booking clerks, seven ticket collectors, two chief booking supervisors, five Railway Police Force personnel, five pointspersons, two announcers, and a station manager.
DK Sharma, General Manager of Central Railway, has played an important role in taking the initiative. He was quoted saying that some of the passenger reservation counters and suburban ticketing systems were completely operated by women. Hence it was decided that Matunga station be handed over to all-women staff.
Women and the Railways have shared an amicable bond over the years. Mamata Kulkarni was appointed as the station manager at Kurla railway station in 1992. The Shyamnagar metro station in Jaipur is already being operated by all-women staff.
The Matunga railway station gets a huge number of student commuters as a lot of colleges are located in the area. It provides connectivity to Sion and Dadar and there is heavy rush during peak hours.
All-women police stations
In recent years, there has been a considerable rise in all-women police stations in the country. Out of 15,000 police stations, there are more than 500 all-women police stations in the country. The need for creating more all-women police stations was felt after the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case. The first all-women police station was set up in Kerala in 1973.
According to Bureau of Police Research and Development, women make up only 6.44 percent of the total police force in India, far from the 33 percent target set seven years ago.
The World Bank had last year found that establishing a women-only police station in the metropolitan areas of Brazil was associated with around 17 percent reduction in the homicide rate.
Women taxi operators
There is a trend of all-women taxis operations worldwide. In India, “Women on wheels” started their operations as franchisee of the worldwide association. A group of professionals came together with a common intent of empowering women, especially from the weaker sections of society throughout the country.
According to womencabs.com, another all-women cab service, “our drivers are handpicked girls who want to be a role model for many women who want to take up non-conventional jobs. These girls undergo extensive training, including self defense.”
Similarly betterindia.com offers all-day transport facilities for women and their families in Bengaluru. An ex Army officer also started yourstory.com women cabs for women’s empowerment and safety in April 2015.
India is also home to Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE), founded in 1993, one of India’s premier institutions for women dedicated to entrepreneurship. It has branches in different states with a membership of 15,000 individual professionals and more than 28 member associations. Small-scale entrepreneurs account for 60 percent of FIWE’s combined membership, with large firms representing five percent and micro-enterprises the remaining thirty five.
—India Legal Bureau