Amid modernisation in railways, porters face shrinking income, bleak future
The newer infrastructure developed by the Railways over the past 15-years, including lift and escalators, combined with wheeled suitcases, has practically wiped out our job, says a porter in U.P.
Railway porters in Uttar Pradesh are witnessing a decline in their daily earnings as passengers rely more on wheeled suitcases, elevators, escalators, and battery-powered vehicles to transport their luggage. This shift has led many porters to seek alternative employment opportunities. One porter, Umesh Maurya, who has been working as a coolie for over a decade, now plans to purchase an electric auto to make ends meet as the profession no longer provides sufficient income to support a family of four.
He notes that passenger demand has plummeted, with only one passenger per day now utilizing his services, a sharp decrease from three to four passengers daily when he began.
Vikash Katiyar, another porter at Lucknow’s Charbagh Railway Station, observes that the introduction of wheeled suitcases and trolley bags in the early 2000s, alongside newer railway infrastructure like lifts and escalators, has rendered traditional porter work obsolete. Hardly any new entrants are interested in the profession anymore, which was once a staple of Indian railways.
With his son’s ₹80,000 investment, Vikash’s son runs a tea shop that now earns nearly four times more than a porter. Both porters express concern over the poor living conditions in the Sahayak quarters where they reside, lacking adequate sanitation and basic social security benefits, including pensions. They have repeatedly demanded permanent integration into regular Indian Railways Group-D employment and restrictions on battery-operated rickshaws and luggage trolleys on station platforms, yet their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
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