Women’s compartment in Pune-Lonavla local unguarded; men often hop in; thefts common

Men travelling in the women’s coach of a Pune-Lonavla local. Express

DESPITE repeated complaints by them, women commuters travelling in the special coach reserved for women in Pune-Lonavla local trains continue to remain at the mercy of miscreants, drunkards and ticketless male passengers as security personnel and ticket examiners, who are supposed to monitor the coaches, remain out of sight.
Women passengers alleged that they often lose their valuables to thieves and even get harassed while travelling in the reserved coach. Due to the lack of personnel from the Railway Protection Force (RPF) or Government Railway Police (GRP), male passengers often board the coaches reserved for women and complete their journeys without any trouble.

While senior officials with RPF and GRP have claimed that women constables are deployed in the women’s compartment, especially during the night hours, women who travel frequently allege that it’s not the case. “I have been travelling between Talegaon and Kasarwadi for the last four years. Not once have I seen a woman police officer or a travelling ticket inspector in the coach. Because of this, not only men board the coach, even ticketless women travellers crowd the compartment, leading to thefts in the coach,” said Rashida Khokkar, an HR professional.
Women passengers say that their complaints about men travelling in the coach often fall on deaf ears. Abhaya Kelbaikar, a 30-year-old recruitment consultant, who occasionally takes the local train from Hadapsar to Lonavla, has taken to Twitter several times to bring the issue of men travelling in reserved coach to the notice of the railway authorities. It hasn’t helped her cause. According to her, although she received a response on Twitter saying that the matter “had been escalated to the respective authorities”, nothing came out of it.

“When I complained a second time, I was told on Twitter that the train had been tracked and that the matter will be attended to once the train reaches Lonavla. However, before the train reached Lonavla station, the man in question deboarded the train on his own volition. Also, upon reaching Lonavla, I found that no authorities or police officers were in sight,” said Kelbaikar.

In October this year, a 32-year-old woman had put up a Facebook post about being subjected to sexual harassment from an inebriated man in a ladies compartment that she found herself alone at 10 am one day. She had claimed that this man was masturbating in the coach and that when she called up the helpline number, the police had told her that they could only help her at a station which was 20 minutes away.

A team from Pune Newsline travelled in the local compartment reserved for ladies on Wednesday. The team found men entering and travelling in the coach. It was also noticed that no security personnel — either from GRP or RPF — was deployed in the coach nor was there a TTE inside to keep ticketless travellers at bay.

During the journey from Akurdi to Shivajinagar, one man got into the ladies coach with his family at Chinchwad station, where the train halted for nearly ten minutes, sitting down comfortably for almost the same time. Two more men — one boarded at Chinchwad, another at Pimpri — finished their journeys comfortably.

The railway administration has, however, refused to believe the observations shared by commuters. According to the administration, the RPF continuously patrols the ladies compartment on the local, especially during the night hours. The administration also said that the TTEs are required to visit every coach of the local, including those reserved for women as part of their duty.

“It’s possible that due to some reasons, the RPF personnel were not spotted on some occasions, but they have been deployed in the ladies coaches to maintain security. The patrolling is intensified during night hours. Also, the ticket checking squads frequent all the coaches of every train, including locals, from morning to evening and deboard and penalise those who illegally enter the coaches,” said railway spokesperson Manoj Jhawar.