Mumbai’s suburban railway network goes by a tired but apt sobriquet, the lifeline of Mumbai. For the men behind the scenes, though — the gangmen, engineers and others working on the tracks — it may as well be a death line.

A report in this paper cited that the National Rail Mazdoor Union (NRMU) has lost 20 of its men this year alone, while the Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh (WRMS) lost 44 workers since 2010. These fatalities are trackmen, track maintainers, and engineers in the line of duty.