By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Oct 31:
With a view to offer more safety to women passengers, Indian Railway has launched “Meri Saheli” initiative which seeks to focus attention on ensuring safety and security of women passengers travelling by trains for their entire journey from starting station to destination station across all zones.
An initiative of RPF, the strategy entails interaction with lady passengers especially those travelling alone by a team of young lady RPF personnel at the originating station. These lady passengers will be briefed about all precautions to be taken during the journey and will be told to dial 182 in case they face or see any problem in the coach.
The RPF team will collect only the seat numbers of the ladies and will convey them to stoppages en-route. The platform duty RPF personnel at the stopping stations en-route will keep unobtrusive watch over the concerned coaches and berths and if the need arises, will interact with the lady passengers. RPF/RPSF escort onboard will cover all the coaches/identified berths during its duty period.
RPF teams at the destination will collect the feedback from the identified lady passengers. The feedback then will be analysed and corrective action, if any, will be taken. If some distress call comes from a train covered under “Meri Saheli” initiative, the call will be monitored at the level of senior officers.
It is worth noting that the “Meri Saheli” initiative was started as a pilot project in South Eastern Railway in September 2020 and after getting encouraging response from lady passengers, it was extended to all zones and KRCL from 17 October, 2020. Now the operation is gathering momentum.
“Railway stations and trains will witness a manifold increase in footfall during the upcoming festive season. To face the challenges posed by increased footfall effectively, especially during the pandemic wherein COVID protocol also needs to be rigorously enforced,” said the Union Ministry of Railway’ statement.
“It was felt that offenders involved in human trafficking may try to indulge in the trafficking of women and children taking advantage of the festive season rush as they are most vulnerable to this crime. Action plan to curb the menace of human trafficking during the upcoming festive season was discussed. It was decided that a sustained and concerted drive will be launched to identify and apprehend the traffickers,” the Railway Ministry said.
