People's Democracy

Police Repression On Railway Satyagrahis In Mumbai

P R Krishnan

THE International Human Rights Day for a vast number of 1.18 crore Mumbaikars on December 10, 2005 was quite a memorable day. It was so for those who fought for the right to travel safely and humanly in local trains. For many, their peaceful satyagraha on the day turned out to be a day of brute suppression at the hands protectors of law and order. And it happened in the western suburbs of this city. The satyagrahis belonged to 70 organisations, some political, some mass organisations and some NGO’s. They were all voicing their demand for additional trains and for breathing space in the running trains. The main organisers of this protest demonstration was the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).

The city of Mumbai and its suburbs in the Western Railway sector and central railway sector together has a population of 1.18 crores. Nearly 60 lakhs of them travel in suburban trains daily to reach the places of their work and back home. They include those commuting in the local rains from Churchgate in South Mumbai to Virar in the Western Railway from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) to Khopili and Kasara route in the Central Railway and in the CST Panvel route of the Harbour line in the East South Central sector of the central Railway. Commuters spend almost three hours every day in compartments in horrible and suffocating conditions.

Suburban local trains are the life lines of Mumbai, next only to BEST services in the city and state transport services in the adjoining towns. The Western Railway operates 248 services on its tracks every day with almost equal number of services on the Central and harbour line tracks. There are an estimated 28 lakh people every day commuting through Western Suburban trains alone. The rest travel through the other two sectors. An over whelming majority of the commuters are pass holders for which money is paid to the railways in advance. But during last one year the railway authorities have reduced the number of trains thereby adversely affecting the frequency of trains. This is despite the large increase in population and the consequent rise in the bread earning people across the city who are forced to travel in local trains like cattle.

Despite organising various protest actions the railway authorities were not moving to improve the conditions of travel. The DYFI finally decided to offer rail satyagraha on December 10. In the meantime the campaign attracted mass sympathy and it began gathering mass sympathy and it began gathering mass momentum. Naturally, other organisations also began joining the campaign and it became a broad-based platform of 70 organisations. These included SFI, AIDWA, CPI(M), Congress (I), BJP, Local Shiv Sena Units, Janta Dal (S), Republican Party of India and many social and voluntary organisations. Trade unions including CITU lent support to the movement. Peaceful satyagrahas were offered at Mira Road, Naigaon, Vasai and Nakllasopara Railway Stations by the volunteers as well as commuters.

The total number of people participated in the rail satyagraha were in thousands. The people positioned themselves on the tracks to stop the movement of trains. As a result, not only the local trains but the long distance trains were also halted for about 6 hours. In many places, the leaders began addressing the peaceful satyagrahis. At Nallasopara, however police resorted to lathi charge and also burst tear gas shells to disperse the Satyagrahis. Scores of people were arrested. Though many of them were released on personal bonds late in the evening on the day, 28 of them were detained in the Railway Police lock up at Vasai. Next day the Holiday Magistrate granted bail for 2 women out of the 28 and rest were put under judicial custody and lodged in central prison at Thane. They had to spend 11 days in the jail before they were released on bail. "In the meantime on December 17, the CPI(M) member of parliament Sebastian Paul accompanied by this correspondent visited the jail authorities and met leaders of the rail satyagrahis in the prison". The police, in addition to the arrests made on the day of satyagraha, are now planning to frame cases against more people on different charges.

The DYFI has now decided tofurther widen the mass base of the movement and make an all out efforts for remedying the inhuman conditions of travel in Mumbai Suburban trains.

It is worth noting, the registered accidents which took place on Western, Central and Harbour line routes from running trains during last 10 months alone were 13,515. Of these accidents, some were while boarding the trains or alighting from or while crossing the tracks. As a result, 6949 people were killed. Another 6566 were partially injured, maimed and incapacited to earn anything in the life. These are the figures of the 10 months from January to October this year. The total number of accidents which occurred in Central Railway sector alone this year were 7064.