Safety on trains remains a women’s only concern

KOCHI: The rising rate of crimes against women in trains has apparently failed to move the railway minister who hasn’t done anything to address the issue in his 2012-13 budget.
“It wouldn’t cost crores of rupees to introduce compartments of a different colour for women, or move the women’s compartment to the centre of the train and instal an alarm system in it. It’s really appalling that such simple demands are ignored while drafting a democratic budget,” said noted writer Sugatha Kumari.
Bimala Baby, one of the advocates who had approached the high court with a PIL seeking more security for women in trains, pointed out that currently there were only around 46 women security personnel manning trains in the state.
“Around 250 cases (of security breach) have been registered with the RPF and the GRP in the last 12 months. The number of security personnel available are only enough to man a tenth of the total number of trains running in Kerala. This is an issue that the Central government needs to urgently address,”she said.
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