EDITORIALS

Mocking Passenger Safety

The response of the Railways to passenger deaths is another committee.

hen a 21-year-old commuter lost his grip on the pole

at the train door and fell in Mumbai a few days ago,
his tragic fate was no different from that of so many
others. But it was the video clip of the fall that went viral on the
internet that shook even those who are used to regularly reading
reports of such falls. It brought home forcefully the reality of the
horrifying numbers of deaths due to falls from overcrowded trains,
crashes at unmanned level crossings and people crossing rail tracks
where foot overbridges are either non-existent, too crowded or at
an inconvenient distance from the roads that lead to the station.
Mumbai, with its extensive suburban railway network that every
day runs 2,905 services carrying 7.5 million commuters, reports the
highest number of deaths due to people falling out of trains.
The response from Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu was predictable; he ordered the formation of a committee. Yet, in 2012 a
high-level committee chaired by Anil Kakodkar gave a detailed
report on rail safety along with suggestions to the Railways.
Prabhu had asked the Railway Board in June this year to submit
an implementation plan of the recommendations of the
Kakodkar report. What happened to that?
In fact, the Kakodkar Committees report is said to be unacceptable because it identified the root causes of the weak safety
record of the Railways and showed the enormity of the challenge. It pointed to poor infrastructure, inadequate resources
and lack of empowerment at the functional level. It observed
that safety margins had been narrowed and infrastructure
maintenance neglected because financially the Indian Railways
were on the brink of collapse.
It recommended that a statutory Railway Safety Authority be
set up with an oversight on safety on the operational mode rather
than the Railway Board holding all the strings as at present. It
also suggested that the Research Design and Standards Organisation, the top technical wing of the Railways be restructured,
an Advanced Signalling System (like the European Train Control
System) be adopted for the entire trunk route length of 19,000 km
within five years, and all level crossings (manned and unmanned) be closed down. (As of this year the Railways still have
11,563 unmanned level crossings.) Implementing all these recommendations would cost around Rs 1,00,000 crore over a fiveyear period. Perhaps the mammoth amount of funding sought

Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

decEMBER 5, 2015

vol l no 49

for a bullet train from Ahmedabad to Mumbai could be spent

more fruitfully to strengthen the safety and reliability of the
existing rail networka true modernisation of the network.
At railway stations in the urban network, the problem is compounded by the absence of timely assistance. The importance of
emergency carethe golden hourseems to be an alien concept
for everyone concerned, including station masters and railway staff.
Getting the injured to a hospital or even giving immediate basic
treatment until then is often done by untrained fellow-commuters.
Time passes as officials and police argue over jurisdiction.
In one particularly horrifying case in Mumbai in January 2014,
the severed left hand of 16-year-old Monica More was carried
by two fellow commuters in a borrowed piece of cloth, while
they tied her other near-severed arm with their handkerchiefs.
She was taken to a hospital in an autorickshaw because there
was no emergency care or ambulance available at one of the
Mumbais busiest stations. She lost both her arms.
Basic measures must be in place, officials and staff must be
properly trained and made aware of the immediate steps to be
taken after an accident. Instead of addressing such a need, railway authorities issue appeals to passengers to not hang out of
trains, to avoid train rooftops and rail tracks. Although this is
excellent advice, passengers take such risks on trains not out of
choice but because they are helpless when faced with congested
networks and decrepit infrastructure. To make matters worse,
railway authorities refuse to classify many such cases as accidents
to avoid accepting liability and paying compensation.
According to the reply to a right to information question, in
the last decade 25,722 passengers fell from trains on Mumbais
suburban network. Of these, 6,989 died. Across the entire country 14,973 deaths occurred on railway tracks in 2011, the number was 16,336 in 2012, and increased to 19,997 in 2013. According to the ministry, until October 2014, 18,735 died in falls from
trains, trespassing, accidents and suicides.
Ironically, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways
had earlier this year said that appointing committees to look into
various facets of safety and then not implementing their recommendations was a waste of public money. To now announce
another committee to look into the safety of passengers, instead
of implementing known measures, is a mockery beyond words.