DRIVEN TO DESPAIR

"Are loco pilots not humans?" the Congress had asked on social media platforms, after Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, visited a running room, or rest room, for locomotive pilots at the New Delhi railway station last month to review their working conditions. Rahul himself spoke of their "16-hour" workday and "boiling hot" cabins.

- Avishek G. Dastidar

On August 1, during a budget discussion in Parliament, railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw hit back with some numbers: 558 running rooms across the country have been air-conditioned, said the minister, as have 7,000 train engine cabs.

Unfortunately, neither the minister, nor the Opposition, went beyond the general working conditions of loco pilots to talk about the specific grievances that women on the job claim they have been raising for years-the absence of basic facilities like toilets on locomotives and separate spaces, including changing rooms and washrooms for women, in running rooms. "We often have to use the public toilets at stations even to change," says a woman loco pilot, who has been working for 18 years and is currently posted in Rajasthan.