Job cuts in railways

Indian Railways is one of the largest public sector employers in the world. The railways are often evaluated as one of the contributions of the British. Even when critiquing that their objective was to transport timber and spices from Indian forests and tea, cardamom, and other produce from estates to the ports, rail transport remains at the forefront even today for the masses to travel far and wide. The contributions provided by the railways for connecting states and for freight transport are considered invaluable.

Having crossed over a century, it has moved far ahead from the "black coal engines" and is now preparing to welcome even the bullet train. Kerala is also striving for a high-speed train. Indian Railways is rapidly passing through stages to make travel comfortable in accordance with modern times and to change the old face of trains. In this context, instead of providing employment to more people, the Union Ministry of Railways is preparing to cut thirty thousand posts across the country. As part of this, the Railway Board has given instructions to the General Managers of various zones to cut 29,906 posts. 3,303 posts will be lost to Northern Railway and 1,906 posts to Southern Railway.

Due to the central policy that two percent of posts must be eliminated annually, more than three and a half lakh posts are already lying vacant. In Southern Railway alone, where Malayalis and others work in large numbers, around twenty thousand posts have not been filled. However, the explanation from the Railways is that they are cutting obsolete jobs like typists and posts that have become unnecessary due to the growth of technology. Primarily, posts belonging to the non-safety category are being reduced. A target has been given to each General Manager to eliminate two percent of the sanctioned staff strength as of April 1, 2026. Posts will be eliminated through measures such as restructuring, abolition, surrender of posts, and transfers. It is a great relief that this will not affect permanent employees currently in service. However, about seven lakh contract employees are working in the Railways. They are primarily utilized for the construction of new tracks and track doubling.

If a situation arises where contract employees can be terminated at any moment, it may even adversely affect the existing development projects of the Railways. A fact consistently pointed out in the investigation reports of expert teams appointed when railway accidents occur is the shortage of employees in the safety categories. In this situation, the cutting of posts raises great concern. Labor unions have come forward against the cutting of posts while a shortage of employees persists. Unions allege that posts are being cut in the context of outsourcing tasks like the maintenance of AC coaches and the repairing of rakes. While the country is developing, administrators should strive to avoid decisions that lead to a decrease in job availability as much as possible. This is because the economic growth of the country can be experienced by the public only when jobs with good salaries are available within one's own country. Policies that hinder this should not be encouraged.