Yamunanagar woman breaks typecast to become railways section controller

YAMUNANAGAR: A young widow from Yamunanagar has overcome many odds to become a guard in the railways -- generally considered a male domain. Raj Rani, 37, left a job with a nationalized bank to take up one with the railways.
She was among three women to join as trainee rail guard in a batch of 160. While the other two quit, Raj cleared the training to become a guard of a goods train.
Having completed two years as the guard, she cleared the exam to become a section controller — a feat no woman in North India has achieved so far.Come February 2, and she will leave for training for her new job.
Married at the young age of 18, she moved to Delhi soon after and is now a mother of three children. She lost her husband in an accident several years ago and withstood pressure to remarry.
“Instead of getting married again, I decided to pursue higher education. I got enrolled in an undergraduate course through distance education. After that I did my MBA and cracked the banking exam. After serving in the bank for two years, I took up the challenge to work as a rail guard,” she said.
“After clearing the railway exam, I opted for the guard’s job out of ignorance. Even when the nature of work became clear to me, I decided to take up the challenge and break the stereotype attached with the job. I knew after serving as a guard I can go for other challenging jobs by qualifying departmental exams,” she added.
“She is the first woman to become a rail guard in the entire region. We have hardly heard of any other woman who has opted for the job elsewhere. Though we have seven women loco pilots, she is the only woman guard we have. Even in her new position, after getting promoted as a section controller, she will be the only woman in the team. It is another challenge for her to control the movement of trains. However, her previous performance is sufficient to establish the belief that she will do great in her new role,” Raj’s superior divisional operations manager Karn Singh told TOI.