A group of women porters active on Saurashtra’s Bhavnagar Railway Station today met Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar. Bhavnagar is India’s one and only railway station where women porters .
A group of women porters was led by BJP MLA of Bhavnagar smt Vibhavariben Dave.
Women porters sat in Gujarat Assembly’s visitors gallery and watched the proceding of the house. They congratulated Gujarat Chief Minister for passing a bill to provide 50% women reservation in local bodies of Gujarat.
About 15 porters at Bhavnagar railway station are women above the age of 35. They earn Rs 3,000-4,000 per month ferrying goods of passengers. It was in 1880 that Takhtsinhji Thakor, the then ruler of Bhavnagar, started a rail link for his kingdom. With that, he gave women from the Koli community permission to work as porters. He issued badges, recognised by the Bhavnagar state, to all the 40 porters appointed at that time. In Thaktisinhji’s time, the badge could be passed on to a daughter only. While this has not become a rule, the community has followed the tradition even after Independence. Today, women porters without the badge are not allowed to work at the station.
However railway rules now allow porter badges to be transferred only to male heirs. Those women porters who have applied for renewal of licenses have been told so in writing. The reason according to railway officials is that Bhavnagar station is expanding to accommodate increased passenger traffic and the general consensus is that women cannot transport goods from the original platform to the two new ones which are now being used for passenger trains.
Source : Desh Gujarat
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Bhavnagar is uncommon..welldone Bhavnagar..
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