Some Rambling thoughts…. On the railways, unmanned level crossings, accidents and suicides elsewhere…..


News of an accident involving an improvised auto-rickshaw carrying 17 people and an EMU train at an un-manned level crossing near Villupuram in Tamil Nadu a couple of days ago was flashed on TV screens and the front page of all newspapers in the State this week. And a couple of days later, we learnt that 7 more farmers committed suicide in Vidharbha in Maharashtra, taking the total number of such suicides in that region to a whopping1045 since June 2005.

Both these tragic incidents may appear unrelated on the face of it. But then, if only we think about it, there is a connection between the two. The connection is in the realm of the state policies.

Let us discuss the ``accident’’ that occurred near Villupuram first. The plain and simple fact is that all the 17 people would not have died if the Indian Railways had done something, over the past few years to do away with this category called un-manned-level-crossings. It is not as if all the level crossings in India are un-manned. We have level crossings where a railway worker would ensure that road traffic is brought to a halt when a train crosses the path by closing the gate. We do have technology, put in place in many other level-crossing gates where the train is signaled to proceed only when the gates are locked and secured that way. And these are done without any men there but through a technology that ensures that the green light is on only after the gates close.

While the business of automatic-interlocking-signal-system is indeed an expensive proposition and is hence viable only on routes where the traffic intensity is high, the good old mechanism of employing gate-men in level crossings has been in vogue in the Indian railways for long. It involves employing two class IV workers, working alternately during the day and the night, at each of these level crossings.

While the exact number of such un-manned level crossings across the Indian railway system cannot be ascertained as such (the railways have stopped posting such data), it certainly will add up to several thousands. And records show that around 100 mishaps occur every year in these un-manned level crossings. There is no data available on the number of lives lost in such accidents. In other words, it is necessary that the Railways do something to prevent such accidents.

This is not impossible. It is not as if it requires huge investments. All that is needed is to convert all these un-manned level crossings into manned level crossings. Simple economic logic would lead us to agree that such men, when gainfully employed, will not think of committing suicide or end up resorting to criminal acts against the state and the society.

But then, the strategy of the Indian Railways, as spelt out in the Status Paper presented before Parliament in 2002 is to construct rail-over-bridges in order to prevent accidents at the un-manned level crossings. The paper does not mention the enormous costs involved in this strategy and the fact that this would mean a long wait for ordinary people. It will take several years before level crossings are replaced by rail-over-bridges given the state of Railway finances and also considering that it is not possible to attract private players and foreign investors in such projects! In other words, we will end up reading news about such tragic deaths for several years to come.

The trouble is that the most important concern for the Railway administration, particularly in the era of neo-liberalism is to cut down on staff. In the decade between 1991 and 2001, for instance, the Indian Railways effected a staff reduction of 2.62 lakhs. From a little more than 18 lakhs in 1991, the staff strength in the Indian railways came down to 15 lakhs and 45 thousand in 2001. And a Railway Board circular to the various Zonal Railways in 2000 called for an annual reduction of one per cent in the operational departments and a 0.5 per cent in non-operational departments. The aim is to bring down the staff strength to 11.8 lakhs by 2010. In other words, a further reduction by 4.5 lakhs!

This has been happening at a time when the number of zones and divisions have gone up (to serve the partisan concerns of Railway Ministers) and also when rail traffic has increased considerably due to the introduction of new trains. This means over-use of the available manpower particularly those in the operational departments. The drivers, guards, station masters and other operational staff will end up having to work more. This certainly will have its impact on their ability to steer clear of accidents.

While the railway’s share of freight movement have not increased in the same proportion as it should have due to the increase in quantum of trade and manufacture during the same period due to competition from the road transport, we do see that the Railways have registered a profit. It also means that the Railways can afford to employ more people, at least in the class IV categories.

Apart from preventing accidents in level crossings, this could mean that a few thousand men, across the country, who have been denied even primary education and hence could not dream of a career in the booming IT sector are gainfully employed. And this could mean that their children do not suffer the same fate but manage to go to school and end up with the ability to read and write even if they do not turn into management wizards. The least that can be achieved is that they will not be forced into committing suicides when their life is ruined by bad monsoons, floods, high cost of pesticides and fertilizer and indeed the debts they incur because of all this.

Lalu Prasad Yadav had insisted, in an interview recently, that he continues to be committed to the idea of socialism. A bold statement indeed, in these times when socialism is considered a bad word and even as part of a conspiracy against our national interest. He had also proved this as Minister for Railways when he ordered that khadi clothe be used as much as it can be as linen in the air-conditioned coaches or when he ordered the caterers against use of plastic cups in the railway premises.

He will do a lot of good by altering the strategy that Nitish Kumar, as Railway Minister, had thought of in 2002; to eliminate un-manned level crossings by building rail-over-bridges. And employ a few thousand gate-keepers there instead.