Indian Railways decides to reserve 50 percent posts for women in Railway Protection Force

Piyush Goyal, Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy at the Indian Express idea exchange in New Delhi on July 3rd 2014. Express photo by Ravi Kanojia.

In a big step towards ensuring the safety of women passengers, the government has decided to reserve 50 percent seats for women in the upcoming Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel recruitment.

Speaking at an event in Patna, Union Railway minister Piyush Goyal announced that the 50 percent reservation for women will result in almost 5,000 jobs for women in RPF. The Indian Railways has issued notifications to recruit 10,000 RPF personnel.

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Indian Railways, being one of the biggest employers in the world, has more than one lakh female staff and the numbers are continuously increasing. Recently, the Indian Railways has dedicated Mathunga Railway station of Mumbai, as the first all-women staffed railway station. While Matunga is a suburban station for local trains in Mumbai, Gandhinagar in Jaipur became the first main-line station to be managed by an all-female staff.

Apart from the RPF vacancies, the Indian Railways has announced vacancies for about 1.25 lakh posts in different categories. The Union Minister also announced that all the 6000 railways stations across the country and the important trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi will be installed with CCTV and other security measures.

He also laid foundation stones and inaugurated various railway facilities at different functions held in Patna and Ara on Sunday. He laid foundations for electrification of the 97km long Ara-Sasaram rail line.

Railway Protection Force is the premier police organisation of the country, entrusted with protecting railway passengers, passenger area and railway property of the Indian Railways. It has one of the biggest workforces in the country consisting of more than 1.75 lakh active personnel.

The NDA government has invested a lot of resources in restructuring the Indian infrastructure sector. It is stated that the Modi Government is planning to dedicate Rs 1.5 lakh crore to infrastructure projects in the country by next year.

The Indian Railways also seem to be heading in the right direction under the present government. The government has been successful in taking Indian Railways not only to the North-Eastern states but also in the erstwhile Maoist region of Dantewada. The Indian Railways has plans to invest more than Rs. 40,000 crore in infrastructure development in the North East states.

OpIndia Staff: Staff reporter at OpIndia