India’s Matunga railway station enters Limca Book of Records for all-women staff

Mumbai’s Matunga Railway station on Central Railway (CR) has earned a record for itself for being manned by all-women staff. With the aim of empowering women, CR General Manager DK Sharma started this initiative in July 2017, and the station now has a staff of 41 women. This unique feature has helped Matunga suburban station to find a place in the Limca Book of Records.
A railways official said, “We are happy to inform that six months after the CR appointed an all-woman staff at Matunga, this station has figured in the Limca Book of Records 2018.” For station manager Mamta Kulkarni, creating record is nothing new. In 1992, she became the first woman to be appointed as the assistant station manager, and now she leads a team of 41 women staff.

As per reports, women are posted across all departments; 17 ladies for commercial and operations, 6 Railway Protection Force, 8 for ticket checking, 2 conservancy staffers and 2 announcers, and five-point persons, totalling to 41.
“The idea is to create an environment for women where they can make all decisions of their own for their personal and professional well-being, organisation good notwithstanding,” railway officials pointed out.


Initiative like this is such welcoming news in India because of alarming gender disparity in the workplaces. There were even reports disclosing the shrinking number of women in the workforce, with nearly 20 million quitting work between 2004 and 2012. This scenario, however, looks set to change in 2018 at least in this sector as Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said at a press conference, “We will take 2018 as a year where we collectively fight against atrocities against women and children, specially human trafficking. That will be a focused effort across Indian railways.”

This is however not the first time that Indian Railways has created a record. In 1988, Indian Railway’s Mumbai region set a new record in women empowerment with Surekha Bhosale-Yadav becoming the first woman train driver on CR in 1988.