Asia’s first woman loco pilot Surekha Yadav also became the first woman to drive the Vande Bharat Express train on 13 March. (Image: PTI)
The ministry also told the Lok Sabha that there is no demarcation of domain in Indian Railways and all types of posts are open for both men and women.
According to official data from the ministry, the railways recruited only 12,409 women between 2018-19 and 2022-23, compared to 1.64 lakh men. there is no domain demarcation in Indian Rail The ministry told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that all types of posts are open for both men and women.
Ministry of Railways shared the data of number of women and men recruited in the last five years. Of the 12,409 women recruited, the highest number of 8,957 were hired in 2019-20. In 2018-19, the Railways recruited a total of 786 women. The number of women hired in 2020-21 (779), 2021-22 (276) and 2022-23 (1,611) was marginal.
The figures for men are just the opposite. Of the 1,64,281 men recruited in the last five years, 1,28,570 were recruited in 2019-20 alone. The ministry also listed the number of men recruited in 2018-19 (707), 2020-21 (4,779) and 2021-22 (4,336). The provisional figures for this financial year show that 20,889 men have been recruited by the Railways this year.
In response to a question by Sangeeta Azad, BSP MP from Lalganj, Uttar Pradesh, the ministry said that all the posts notified for recruitment in the Railways are open to both men and women.
“In order to encourage employment of women in Railways, the application fee collected from women candidates is refunded to those who appear in the written test. Further, the upper age limit is relaxable up to 35 years in the case of widows, divorced women and women judicially separated from their husbands who have not remarried.
Further, relaxation in the qualifying standards for Physical Efficiency Test (wherever conducted) is provided in case of women candidates. Also, there is a provision of 10 percent horizontal reservation for women in Group C recruitment in the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
On Monday, Asia’s first woman loco pilot Surekha Yadav also became the first woman to run the Vande Bharat Express train. He piloted the newly launched semi-high speed train between Solapur station and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in Mumbai.
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