"A group of 10-12 boys travel on the train running between Delhi and Puducherry. This group of boys is employed by a private company to provide on board services to passengers. The private company hires them so that the railway has no responsibility towards them.

These boys are responsible for the entire train. They distribute bedding to passengers, clean the train, and even assist the TTE (Travelling Ticket Examiner) by checking tickets. At certain designated stations, they get off the train to take photographs and report to their contractor company that no one is sleeping or has disembarked to rest at any station.

The train covers the 2383-kilometer journey between Delhi and Puducherry in 38 hours. During the journey, these employees have no arrangement for sleep, nor is there any scheduled time for rest or sleep. There is no provision for their food and they have to arrange for their meals from the stations on their own Throughout the journey, they have to continuously listen to complaints and take action on them, distribute and collect bedding. After 38 to 45 hours, the train reaches Puducherry. In Puducherry, the train's rake undergoes maintenance for 12-15 hours. During this time, there is no arrangement for these boy’s accommodation or meals. They have to arrange everything on their own. After spending 12-15 hours at the platform of the station, they have to board the train again for the return journey to Delhi. After spending seven days continuously on the train, these employees finally reach Delhi. During this time, many sheets and towels are lost. For each lost sheet, ₹600, and for each towel, ₹100 are deducted. Despite working 140 to 160 hours continuously, only five working days are counted and paid for.

Here, the rate of daily wage is ₹600. In these ₹600, they have to buy and eat food during the seven-day up-down journey. With great difficulty, they manage to save ₹200-300 from this one trip. If there's any debit due to missing sheets or towels, the entire journey ends up with a saving of only ₹50-₹100.

After working for an entire month in these conditions, a worker manages to earn only  seven to eight thousand rupees at the end of the month. These are contract workers, hired by a contractor to whom the Indian Railways has ‘outsourced’ on board house keeping services on the trains like cleaning and AC coach attendance.

Earlier the railways directly employed workers to do these jobs and this was covered by detailed provisions of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual, under which the salaries of such staff would have been between ₹70,000 to ₹1,00,000 per month

The Manual also provides for travel allowance, risk allowance, meal allowance, rest time during work, weekly leave, medical facilities, uniform allowance, uniform washing allowance, bonus, and running room facilities (rest facilities for running staff) at the station. If these additional facilities are included, the expenditure on each employee would amount to ₹1,40,000/- to ₹1,60,000/ per month.

Chapter 9 of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual vol.1 mentions the running allowance rules, which detail the rights and duties of employees on duty while traveling on the train. In the 60s and 70s, when the railway unions were strong, the Indian Railway Establishment Manual was written and implemented in 1989. Before this, the railway unions and federations not only understood and felt the problems of the running staff but also engaged in dialogue with the railway officers, struggled, and achieved victories, ensuring running allowance, rest time, and working hours for the running staff.

It is to escape from these obligations that the Railways has been outsourcing such work to contractors who employ young men at paltry sums. Even under the contract system the contractor is obliged to pay minimum wages as prescribed by the government besides overtime, provident fund contribution, medical insurance, allowances for uniform etc, In actual practice none of these provisions are followed and the contractor pockets the difference. It should be noted that the provisions regarding running staff included in the Manual are actually the hard won rights of railway workers during the post-Independence period and hard negotiations between the railway management and the powerful railway trade unions till the early 1990s. As neo liberal policies took root after that, and the unions were weakened the railways took to the path of privatisation of services through outsourcing to contractors.

In 2018, the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) stated in its report that the railway did not cooperate in providing its records. Similarly, the contractors also did not cooperate.

The objective of the CAG's audit was to assess whether the Railway Administration and its contractors complied with the statutory laws and rules applicable for the protection of the rights of contract labour and whether the Railway Administration had a mechanism in place to monitor the compliance of statutory laws and rules applicable to contract labour. Such non cooperation is also indicative of the increasing weakness of the Railway workers’ movement.

The strength of railway unions in the 60s and 70s can be seen when we read the minutes of the Railway Board meetings of that time. In Letter No. E(LL)/73/HER/26, New Delhi, dated 13.1.1977, the Railway Board instructed the General Managers of all zones to be informed about the method of counting working hours for employees working on running trains and to determine their salaries and allowances.

In Letter No. E(LL)78/HER/69, New Delhi, dated 21.3.1979, the Railway Board not only created rules on this matter but also respectfully informed the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen.

After 1991, capitalism, its collaborators, and sycophants flourished. After that, they began to strip away all the rights earned by trade unions, such as working hours, social security, physical security, and a good standard of living.

It seems that capitalism in India had the most contempt and animosity towards railway unions. Almost all major labor reforms and rights in India have been the result of the struggles of railway unions. The last achievement of railway unions may have been the formation of the sixth and then the seventh pay commissions. The seventh pay commission was just a continuation of the sixth pay commission.

Since 1991, trade unions in India have either been suppressed or tamed. The militant, struggling, hardworking, and proud trade unions of pre-1991 now seem to be wagging their tails like a pet dog.

Today, the contract system has pushed railway labour back to the conditions of 70 years ago.

For almost 20 years, the railway has not issued any vacancies. The railway had its own telephone department. Today, one has to find out where it is. The railway used to have its own departments for supplying electricity to staff quarters, distributing water, maintaining sewer systems, and carrying out repairs and painting of houses. The railway also had its own hospitals, schools, and other municipal departments. Today, all of this seems empty. Even the most critical staff for train operations, known as running staff, has been outsourced.

In 2000, the Indian Railways had 2.5 million employees. By 31.3.2007, this number had reduced to 1.406 million. Today, this number has further decreased to 1.227 million.

In 1947, the rail infrastructure covered 54,693 route kilometers. By 1996, this had increased to 62,660 route kilometers. (Information based on the speech of Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan during the railway budget for 1996-97 on 16th July 1996.)

In the same speech, the Railway Minister mentioned that the number of railway employees was 1.2 million.

Today, this infrastructure has expanded even further. It is estimated that around 3 million employees are required to operate this expanded infrastructure. This shortfall of 1.8 million employees is either being filled by other government departments/ministries or by labourers hired under contracts.

On closer inspection, it appears that the railway has organized itself like the military. Railway officers seem to mimic the grandeur of military officers. When you look at the railway officers' colony in Delhi, you see messes, golf courses, music nights, etc., similar to those of military officers. The Northern Railway Women's Welfare Organization is a club for officers' wives, using railway property and earnings. There seems to be no accounting for this. This organization is exclusively for officers' wives; you won't find the wife of any Group D or C employee here.

The position of Telephone Attendant and Dak Khalasi (TADK) also seems to be a copy of the military. In today's mobile phone era, this position is filled only to provide a free servant to officers' families.

The government says that the condition of the railway is deteriorating. The brunt of this deterioration is being borne by Group D employees (now those under contractors) who have nurtured the railway with their blood.

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