Rahul Gandhi asks why Indian Railways trackmen’s lives are off the rails

Noting that trackmen are the most neglected employees of the Indian Railways, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi highlighted their problems on Tuesday, 3 September, while stressing that safe rail travel for crores of people is possible only due to their hard work.

Gandhi shared a video on X, depicting his recent interaction with trackmen at the Delhi Cantonment railway station.

In the video — titled 'Why did the trackmen's lives go off the rails?' — Gandhi tells the trackmen admiringly, "Hindustan na hil paye aap ke bina (India cannot travel the tiniest bit without you)."

'Trackmen are the most neglected employees in the Indian Railways. I got an opportunity to meet them and understand their problems and challenges,' the Congress leader said in his post in Hindi on the microblogging platform.

Trackmen walk 8 to 10 kilometres every day carrying 35 kg of equipment, with their job starting on the tracks and retiring from the tracks itself, Gandhi noted.

In the video, Gandhi walks with the trackmen as they go about their day's work.

He pops into the shed where they keep their belongings and change into uniform: mostly, just a hard hat and safety jacket and work boots — and yet, they must rely on the alertness of drivers to keep them safe, for working hunched over or squatting on the tracks, they have no warning of the train's approach until the feel it in the rails. And of course, sometimes, the work is such that they must fix a problem for a train's worth of passengers and colleagues before they can step aside — hopefully, in time.

In the shed, partly just mesh, backpacks hang or sit lined up. Security from the elements alone is scant. No cubicles, no lockers here, for sure. Certainly no bathroom attached.

As Gandhi sits and chats with the workers, including notably a woman employee, he hears about (and sees) evidence of injuries. The work boots, it turns out, are not all that hard as far as armour. There's not much else for safety gear. No knee pads, say, as they kneel on the crushed stone and gravel that serves as track ballast. No work gloves seem to be in evidence either.

Safe rail travel of crores of Indians is possible only due to the hard work of the trackmen, Gandhi said, adding that 'we have to ensure both their safety and progress'.

Discussions among ministers are mentioned as Gandhi talks to the railway workers. He takes down a list of their concerns, promising to pass them on.

'These major demands of the trackman brothers who work day and night in adverse conditions without basic facilities must be heard at all costs. Every trackman should be provided with a safety device during work so that they can receive timely information about the arrival of a train on the track. Trackmen should get the opportunity for promotions through a departmental examination,' he added.

'This man as leader of opposition is showing mirrors to govt,' one netizen responds on X.

Another contrasted a recent video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Indian cricket team, saying, 'On the other hand, Credit-Jivi Narendra Modi is meeting with the Indian Cricket team. Choose your leader wisely.'

As a politician, most famously since his Bharat Jodo Yatra and then last year's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Rahul Gandhi has made a leti-motif of reaching out to the working class, getting a taste of their lives, listening to their concerns in person — and promising to work with them and for them. Even veteran party members and workers have appreciated the way he walks the talk.

While many of the promises are manifesto points or poll guarantees, sure, he has certainly not waited for the Congress to wrest power from the BJP to raise awareness. Videos of Gandhi with farmers struggling at the markets, DTC employees, young men looking for justice out of the Agniveer scheme, the struggling people of a strife-ridden Manipur have the likes on social media. Manipur got as many as 3 million.

They are a far cry from his first 2017 video on YouTube, chatting with students of prestigious Doon School — a far more privileged crowd. That got a mere 24,000 views. Quite a far cry from the 5,06,000 views his recent dojo video on National Sports Day garnered.

With that kind of reach, the less privileged populations of India certainly are getting better heard by those of us still ensconced in ivory towers.

What kind of change will this bring for the trackmen, though?

With PTI inputs