It's pregnant women against disabled in WR

While passenger bodies have welcomed railways' green light on pregnant women travelling in handicapped bogies, associations for the disabled have criticised it severely
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FOR pregnant women travelling on locals, a battle has been won with the Central and Western Railways' General Manager Kul Bhushan giving them the green signal to board handicapped compartments. The war, however, is far from over.


Protesters oppose the move saying there is barely any space in handicapped compartments anyway

While various passenger bodies have welcomed the move, it has also been severely criticised by groups for the differently-abled, who have asked the railways how they plan to keep female passengers who are not pregnant from misusing the provision.

If everything goes according to plan, the decision will be implemented in the first week of June.

Subhash Gupta, NRUCC member and president, Mumbai Yatri Sangh, said, "The demand had been pending for a while and I think this is a very good decision by the railway authorities.
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It is nearly impossible for pregnant women to get into coaches during peak hours without being pushed around by fellow passengers."

Gupta also appealed to the handicapped passengers to help the pregnant women while they are in the coach.
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"We all know that women have to go out and work in a city like Mumbai and they can't afford to quit their jobs after getting pregnant. Pregnant travellers will need all the help they can get from fellow commuters," he said.

Samir Javeri, director, Mumbai Suburban Railway Passengers' Association, who is also differently-abled, said, "This is a good and acceptable decision from the general manager.
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I doubt whether any female passenger would enter the compartment by lying about being pregnant. Even if some women do, they will be very few in number and will not be enough to justify not taking the decision.

Javeri did, however, ask the railways to look into the issue of sparse and uncomfortable seating in handicapped bogeys.

"The old rakes don't have comfortable seats and though the new rakes have more room, it isn't enough. The space crunch will be even more severe when pregnant women start boarding these compartments," he said.

Jitendra Karelia, president, Disability Advocacy Group, however, said, "This is not a fair decision. They should have at least consulted us before going ahead with the plan.

There is barely any room for us to sit and stand as it is because many female and male passengers get into the coach fraudulently. Men wear goggles to pretend they are blind and fat women claim to be pregnant."

Karelia said he will meet senior officials and apprise them of handicapped people's problems. "We will go on a hunger strike and protest if our opinion is not counted in the decision," he adds

Railways' take
Sharat Chandrayan, Chief PRO, Western Railway, said, "We are considering allowing female passengers to travel in handicapped compartments when they are in an advanced stage of pregnancy.
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The formalities for the proposal will be completed soon and we will issue letters to station masters and ticket collectors regarding the same."

"We have studied all aspects of the issue and concluded that if a woman is not pregnant, she will not lie just to get into the coach. We are, however, working out punishments for the same," said a senior railway official.