The drive, which was conducted between May 11-13, was interesting for reasons other than the statistics. In the second class compartments, 151 women were caught without tickets while seven were caught travelling on invalid passes or card tickets.

According to a senior officer, women are more comfortable than men while making the switch from second-class to first-class because these compartments are rarely subjected to raids - partly to the general perception that women are more sincere than their male counterparts. This perception is bolstered by the fact that nearly 1,000 passengers are caught on the WR everyday, and most of them are men.

But officials claim that there isanother side to the story too. ``If the number of women being caught are negligible, it is because we are badly short-staffed of women ticket checkers,'' said a senior WR officer. According to Chief Public Relations Officer of WR Vinod Asthana, only 22 out of 1,100 ticket checkers in the Mumbai Division are women. Only women checkers are allowed to detain women commuters. Male checkers, when they catch women, are empowered to fine them but cannot detain them. And if the women refuse to pay up the fine, the most that the police can do is to hand them over to the railway police which, in turn, doesn't have enough women constables to handle the culprits.

``Hence for every ten women caught, at least eight are let off with a warning,'' said an official. This, at a time, when an average of just three women are caught for every ten male culprits. Railway officials also complain of `emotional warfare' resorted to by women if they are caught. ``Many times the women browbeat male checkers into submission through thepower of their vocal cords,'' claimed an official.

A senior official recounted an incident when he nabbed an advocate at Malad who promised to pay up the fine if she was allowed to go home and bring the money. ``I have not heard from her since,'' he said.

Counter women commuters, many male checkers board women's compartments to check the same women everyday in a bid to harass them. ``And women checkers are worse, I saw a female checker beat up a few small children for travelling ticketless today,'' said Leena Havnur, a resident of Kandivli.