Who are the Railway Gate Mitras? What do they want?

Over 10000 men and women are employed as gate mitras by the Ministry of Railways at unmanned level crossings to ensure the safety of people while crossing railway tracks. To get a better understanding of what it exactly is, one must not forget the iron poles which are used to allow any vehicle or person to cross railway tracks, when a train is approaching. Now the job of gate mitras are to exactly do the same job, where there are no iron poles to obstruct the vehicles.

According to Indian Railways, "'Gate Mitra' is an initiative of the Ministry of Railways to enhance safety and prevent accidents at unmanned level crossing gates. The person engaged as "Gate Mitra" would alert road-users about approaching trains at unmanned level crossings. They are primarily deployed to counsel the road users to be vigilant while crossing the unmanned level crossing gates."

However, the gate mitras, complain of exploitation and meagre payment. Speaking to Oneindia, several gate mitras said that how they are made to work for 12 hours every day, witout any off throughout the year, for a meagre salary of 3000 to 4000 rupees per month. They also said that there is no arrangement for shelter, first aid, bathroom, and if somebody is not well, taking a day off would amount to salary cut even losing the job.

Neeraj Kumar, President of Bhartiya Rail Gate Mitra Association Karmikshan said that 35% road accidents used to happen at unmanned level crossings bt after the deployment of gate mitras, the frequency of such accidents have rapidly decreased, however, even after being at the spot for over 12 hours, the gate mitras don't earn enough to make ends meet.

Apart from the lack of basic facilities, women who are deployed at such spots have no access to toilets mostly, they have to go in the open to relieve themselves, which also puts their safety at stake. Some women employees stay far away from these level crossings, and face severe problems during menstruation.

The gate mitras also said that due to absence of shelters, they have to also battle the harsh climate - heavy rains, blazing heat. If they do take an off, or raise a question, their contractors threaten to strip the of the job.

Sarita Verma and Rajwati, 25 years of age, and had been working as gate mitras for 3 years, told Oneindia about the problems face by women in the job. They revealed how women are harassed by unknown people and sometimes sexually explicit slurs are thrown at them. However they women said that they have now grown used to it, and it does not deter the from doing their job any longer.

Oneindia also spoke to one such Contractor under whom 14 gate mitras are employed, and what he revealed gave an interesting twist to the story. At first the contractor revealed that the time stipulated for the work has been specified by the Railways and the contractor or the external agency has no role to play, and hence the complaints of employees regarding working hours and offs cannot be taken into consideration.

However, on further questioning what was revealed is the fact that the Railways have only specified the time for which gate mitras are required to be at the unmanned level crossing. Point to be noted is the fact that the number of hours to be worked by each and every employee is not specified by the railways and depends on the contractor. So it is obvious that to make more profit, these contractors employ less number of people and make the work under extreme pressure to earn more. For example if employing 10 gate mitras would allow every employee one off a week, the contractors would hire only 7 (example) make the work without offs, and earn their profit.

The above contractor speaking to us also mentioned about a rest giver ho is deployed if n employee needs rest, however, this claim has been refuted by the employees.

The question is, it is so easy to defy labour laws and exploit the poor? Oneindia will keep a tab of the story and the space would be updated with each and every development.

OneIndia News