Union Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal on Wednesday informed the Parliament that the Indian Railway had hired over 3000 female employees in the technical sector in the last three years.
Goyal also announced the hiring of 50% women in RPF- Railway Protection Force. In the last few years, the railway sector has received over 46 lakhs women applicants out of a total of 2.79 crore applicants amounting to 16.73% of the total.
With the introduction of the interim budget, many more amendments are looking to be made in the employment of people to provide better opportunities for people.
The application fees of the female candidates are refunded to the ones who appear for exams, to ensure maximum turn up.
The maximized number of female candidates in fields that were predominantly considered more “masculine” is a major indication of progress being made on grounds of gender equality. The maximum number of applicants is from Bihar where women seem more interested in train driver and technical jobs followed by Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Women in the railway are taking odd jobs like train drivers, fitters, welders, machinists and so on beating the gender stereotype prevalent in our country.
A recent ruling of the Supreme Court also allowed transgenders to compete for rail jobs. While currently, the Indian railway has just over a hundred transgender staff, an influx is expected to happen gradually.
Along with this, the Physical Efficiency Test (PET) for women has been relaxed to get more qualifying candidates. Also, the upper age limit has been increased to 35 for widows, divorced women and women judicially separated from their husbands to provide better opportunities for such women to have a fresh start at life.
In addition to this Mr. Goyal also stated, "Railways have also ensured provisions of separate restrooms, cloakrooms, changing rooms and coaches have been made to for safe working conditions for women employees.''
