Mumbai: A video of a woman AC train commuter refusing to budge to the deboarding request of railway personnel went viral on Wednesday. The incident occurred at Borivali station on November 22 at around 8.30 am when the woman entered a jam-packed coach of Churchgate-bound train. Given the safety mechanism, the doors of the AC train didn't close as the woman somehow accommodated herself right above the footboard. Uploaded on Twitter, the video has now been retweeted more than a hundred times.
As the train couldn't depart, the personnel of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) rushed to the spot and requested the woman to deboard so that the doors could shut and the train could leave. However, she remained obstinate, and the train guard was left with no option but to accommodate her in the guard's coach, which isn't allowed. But, it was done as the train delay could have led to a cascading effect in peak hours.
“Though allowing her to travel in the train manager's cabin is not permissible, at that time maintaining the punctuality of trains was very important, given the rush hours,” said a senior rail official, adding that women staff will be deployed to avoid this type of incident.
However, the railway's extraordinary gesture has received mixed response from netizens.
“Why is the woman being blamed? She had paid for it. There may not be any AC local after that. If there's no place inside the train, whose fault is it?” tweeted one Rinkesh Shah
Another posted, “That's a breach as per the railway manual, but one can see a lot of railway staff traveling in the guard's coach.”
Similarly, one Anurag tweeted, “What would the driver do if few more women from other compartments also did this kind of drama.” Another user Bhavik said, “Women behave like children and can get away with it. Imagine a man doing something like this. He would have got beaten up black and blue by the authorities. And they talk about male privilege.”
Tweeple react…
“Why is the woman being blamed? She had paid for it. There may not be any AC local after that. If there's no place inside the train, whose fault is it?”
….
“That's a breach as per the railway manual, but one can see a lot of railway staff traveling in the guard's coach.”
...
“Imagine a man doing something like this. He would have got beaten up black and blue by the authorities. And they talk about male privilege.”
