Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s recent announcement to absorb porters as gangmen led to a wave of celebrations across railway stations in the country, except at Bhavnagar Junction here.

The porters at this main junction in Saurashtra have little to cheer about as 22 of the 25 porters are women above the age of 35 — one of the two factors that make them ineligible for a government job that demands heavy physical work.

It was in 1880 that Takhtsinhji Thakor, the then ruler of Bhavnagar, started a rail link for his kingdom. With that, he gave women from the Koli community permission to work as porters. He issued badges, recognised by the Bhavnagar state, to all the 40 porters appointed at that time. In Thaktisinhji’s time, the badge could be passed on to a daughter only. While this has not become a rule, the community has followed the tradition even after Independence. Today, women porters without the badge are not allowed to work at the station.

But 55-year-old Hariben Chaganbhai, who has been working as a porter for close to 30 years now, feels the new Railway Budget won’t change anything for her.

“I earn Rs 2,000-3,000 per month ferrying goods of passengers. I am not educated, but I do know that to become a gangman, one needs some qualification and one has to be in the right age bracket. Given such conditions, nothing is going to change for me or other women porters here,” she said.

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