Mumbai local train commute has becomes a nightmare
Mumbai local train commute has becomes a nightmare
The local train is considered as ‘Lifeline’ for Mumbaikars. Those were the days when local train commute was comfort and peaceful.
But off late, it has emerged as a nighmare. Brawls, chain snatching, looting, harassment by transgender community, molestation have become an order of the day in local train.
They have hit the headlines off late.
Experts attribute the tempers on short leash to increased workload, especially for women in the post-COVID scenario. Reasons for fights among women travellers vary from grabbing a seat to tagging along a male teen relative into the ladies compartment.
Also as of today, tales of commuting in Mumbai locals are legendary. Every commuter worth his or her salt has an interesting, annoying, horrifying, amusing, or depressing anecdote eulogising the legendary Mumbai spirit.
For every newcomer’s tale there are scores veterans could relate. Recently several videos shot in Mumbai local trains went viral, some pleasant, some downright ugly with women indulging in physical skirmishes, literally tearing off whatever is within reach, most often each other’s hair.
A rebuking tone with a heightened rejoinder escalates into a war of words taking on the form of a fisticuff.
Commuters rushing into a full compartment and staking claim to a seat is a common practice. When any other person takes such a reserved seat, an argument ensues. “Second class” travellers who board the first class compartment get a hostile reception.
Following the ‘survival of the fastest’ rule, women who are slow in boarding or alighting get yelled at. Women push and shove to getinto the train without any regard for safety.
“Squabbles over seats, nearly a daily affair, sometimes turn into ugly brawls. The verbal abuse turns physical, with women pushing, slapping and even pulling each other’s hair.
Habitual footboard travellers, blocking train doors, take umbrage to objections and become abusive.
Some regulars travelling for years have an unspoken rule, they share seats only among their select group. Others aware of it give them a wide berth. “Anyone inadvertently occupying such seats is let off with a warning not to repeat the ‘offence’. Taunts follow and the situation turns ugly.
Some women kindly offer to seat a child of standing women on their lap, when the mother disagrees, it becomes a cause for a fight. The mother also has to put up with rebukes from fellow commuters for being callous enough to travel in a heavily crowded train with children in tow.
“If a mother travels in a women’s compartment with her son above the age of 13 years, she is forced to get down withhim and board the general compartment.
The daily average on railways helpline 1512, is over a thousand calls from both Central and Western Railway men and women passengers.
A female GRP constable who has been working in the suburban section for more than a decade opined that women commuters seem to have run out of patience. Besides, handy smartphones are the prime reason for videos of fights going viral.
Most women don’t bother to interfere or counsel the warring women, they prefer tomake videos instead.
News Input K.V.Raman
