Imagine you are heading alone for the first time away from your family in a train and some eve-teasers strip you off in your railway coach. Disgusting! Indeed thought provoking!
Indian Railways is one of the largest railway networks in the world. It approximately transports 20 million people every day and provides employment to 1.5 million. Besides these splendid figures, the Indian Railways is acknowledged the most for its mismanagement. The neglect and heights of mismanagement is manifested when we talk about degraded food quality, the unattended urinals, the tobacco stains, pick pockets, etc. at the railway stations or the trains and to top it all, the loot and molestation cases in the trains. The lack of safety is a major problem, increasing at an alarming rate.
In such a severe and pitiable scenario, the officials seem to have finally woke up from trance and have taken a leap in this matter. To strengthen the security on trains, Indian Railways is expediting the process of installing CCTV surveillance cameras in 20000 coaches at a cost of Rs. 700 crore. The source of the fund is discussed later in the article. The CCTVs will be installed in ladies as well as general compartments.
In a country laced with incessant rapes and abductions of women, it would not be surprising to know that the molestation rate in Indian Railways has also rapidly increased with the years. As per the statistics, a total of 189 cases of molestations were reported in 2013, 119 in 1012, 72 in 2011 as per the railway ministry and many more go unreported. Not just the molestation cases but also the cases of loot touch high values. In 2013 about 19000 people across India have become victims of theft on train.
Hence, the step taken in this matter to set up CCTV cameras is certainly laudable provided it mitigates all the uncertainty associated with it about its success.
For instance, the CCTV cameras are meant for the safety of passengers, especially women but what also matters equally is the safety of the CCTV camera itself. Their monitoring in the lethargic, ignorant and insensitive contemporary scenario seems very critical and challenging. Where in trains, passengers travel without tickets, what if the camera is damaged by the commuters? Its resistance to damage will define its usefulness. Not just the government but it also relies on the citizens to safeguard it.
Although the CCTV is said to be established in the female and the general compartments as well, but recently, an AC 3-tier coach manufactured at Chennai’s Integrated Coach Factory has been rolled out with CCTV camera facility. It is not clear how the division of camera will be like. The biggest problem lies in the overcrowded general compartments, where for a girl it is very difficult to even find a decent place to stand. Establishing CCTV cameras on the long route trains will not solve the problem for the thousands of women travelling daily in the locals.
Establishing CCTV camera is not the only step that needs to be taken. If that was to suffice, then we already know about the dreary areas of Bihar, where the trains and passengers are soft targets of the looters. Despite knowing the high risk, why are the trains travelling on those patches not guarded with high security. When the very loot could not be stopped in spite of many fiery incidents, how can establishing a mere CCTV camera solve the problem? The need of the hour is a proper layout of the plan so as to prevent the very act of violence and massacre in the trains rather than intervening into the matters after the mishap has already occurred. Also the monitoring of the cameras should be quick enough to catch the criminals in the vicinity rather than letting him/her elope far from the place of crime.
These were the lacunas concerning the very working and maintenance of the CCTV cameras to be setup, but there is a more technical aspect to the matter. It is very well known that the rail budget is too less to let the Railway system grow and be managed. The CCTV cameras that will be setup in the trains will not only serve the safety to women but the male counterparts as well. Then why ironically the budget for the CCTV camera is being derived from the Nirbhaya fund which is solely dedicated to ensuring the safety of women? Why isn’t the government increasing the margin of Railway Budget and making it self-sufficient?
The Nirbhaya fund can rather be utilized for increasing the percentage of female constables as against the male counterparts and also in developing some other security measures solely for safeguarding women.
Well, on an aggregate let’s not forget, we are a part of the age old lethargic system where there are many vows but handful implementations. In a world where the Bullet train was launched in 1960’s, we in India are still planning to start one in the country. Hence we may have to long wait till the plan is implemented in a full-fledged manner. Till then the miseries of the women continues and next year the statistics of molestation may be even higher.
Let’s see whether the whole plan of setting up the CCTV cameras by the Indian Railways succeeds or turns out to be another failed attempt.
