The Indian Railways (IR) are said to be the lifeline of the country. It plays a vital role in transporting people and goods to various corners of the country. Unfortunately, this essential service has been continuously starved of funds and neglected by various governments. As a result, the IR has become a death trap for many of its workers and passengers.
In ensuring safe running of trains Signalling & Telecommunication (S&T) workers play a crucial role. They are responsible for installing, maintaining, and repairing faults in the signalling system. Despite the crucial role played by the S&T department, workers of this department continue to work in risky and highly exploitative conditions.
Atrocious working conditions of S & T workers
Unlimited hours of work. Though over the years, the number of coaches and trains as well as their speeds and frequencies have been increasing, the Railway authorities are hell bent on surrendering posts as well as not recruiting staff to fill up the vacancies. This has resulted in an enormous number of vacancies across the board in the IR. This has caused tremendous overwork and stress leading to deleterious effects on the physical, mental and emotional health of all railway workers and their families. Working in such conditions often endangers the lives of passengers as well.
S&T workers undertake critical and exhausting work during their duty hours. Though according to the IR’s Hours of Work and Period of Rest(HOER) rules of 2005 the S & T workers are supposed to have 8 hour shifts, this is not the case.
Although the railways are in operation 24/7, there is no shift duty among S&T workers. Thus, S&T workers are expected to attend to issues and failures at all hours of the day or night. Whenever a signalling failure occurs during their time off, these workers are immediately called back on duty—even in the middle of the night. Railway workers have reported that if they do not answer calls to attend to such failures, they are threatened with charge-sheets, warning letters, and suspensions, or they are considered absent from duty the following day.
In contravention of the HOER rules of 2005, night duty failure gangs who can attend to failures occurring during nights have not been established.
The Railway Board had issued a letter in 2019 (OM No. PC-VII/2019/R-O/1 dated 27.12.2019), stating that the formation of night duty failure gangs necessitates the creation of new posts, and that the General Manager and DRM will have the power to create these posts. However, in numerous zones, this has not been done.
Moreover, S&T workers in some divisions are forced to take permission before leaving headquarters even on their rest days! They are not able to take leave even to attend funerals of their loved ones.
Risky conditions of work leading to avoidable deaths and injuries. The Railway Board has not been providing safety shoes, raincoats, winter jackets, luminous vests, etc. in a timely manner, violating its own rules. This safety equipment is essential for the security of S&T workers and can save lives. Moreover, adequate training is not being provided for the maintenance and repair of new equipment.
S&T workers are often sent out for maintenance, repair work or patrolling alone owing to a shortage of staff. This puts these workers at high risk. Working alone under stressful conditions while using heavy equipment can result in workers missing signs of an incoming train. This has resulted in multiple run over incidents over the years. Different railway unions in different zones have raised the demand for the filling up of vacancies in S&T departments across the country so that workers can be sent out to work in pairs or groups. These demands remain unfulfilled to a large extent.
The task of painting the correct signs and symbols is critical to safety yet posts such as those of painters are outsourced. This is another example of how outsourcing, contractualization and outright privatization of different departments in the railways directly affect the safety of workers and passengers alike.
Every few days, there is news of S&T employees being run over while on duty. Earlier this year, six S&T employees across the country were run over in just 16 days.
Who is guilty, and who is made the scapegoat?
The condition of the S&T workers of the IR is typical of other categories of railway workers in our country. Everywhere the story is the same – surrendering of posts, an enormous number of vacancies, overwork for those who have railway jobs, deleterious effects on the health of employees and their family members. There has been no recruitment for years though lakhs of youth appear for the exams every year. Tens of thousands of job positions, that are essential to run the railways smoothly and safely, are vacant.
A rising number of accidents are the inevitable result, with accompanying loss of lives and railway property. Whenever this happens, the authorities are quick to find scapegoats in the form of S&T workers, loco pilots, station masters, etc. to name a few. These are meted out severe punishment, whereas authorities who should be held accountable, go scot free.
Though various unions and associations have been raising demands to improve their working conditions, governments have been heedless. When workers’ struggles become intense, the railway authorities appoint some committees “to look into their grievances” Often these committees are just made in order to cool off the struggles. They take years to come up with their reports. Even after that, the recommendations made are rarely if ever implemented.
What needs to be done?
Railway workers need to realise that as workers of the country’s lifeline, they have tremendous potential power.
Right now their strength is severely curtailed due to the lack of unity in their ranks. This unity needs to be built. To take steps towards that, whenever any section of railway workers is fighting for their rights and just demands, all Indian Railway workers need to unite across barriers of union and party affiliations as well as of different types of work and support them.
It is very obvious from the governments deeds that they are trying to create such a situation where government will convince the country that it’s safe to handover railways to private owners