License & Livelihood
Centre for Civil Society 234
Licensing & Livelihood:
Railway Coolies in Delhi
Kumar Gaurav & Mayank Singhal
As most of us would recall of our train journeys, it is a familiar figure clad in red that sees us off and receives us after a long and tiring journey. They are the ones on whose head and shoulders rest our bag and baggage, while we endlessly walk from one platform to another. Following us up and down the cross-platform bridges with tens of kilos of weight on their heads, it is certainly not an easy day for the licensed railway porter.
This breed of workers literally thrives on our load, making a living out of hard physical labour. While their red shirts add spice to the buzz of activity at railway stations, life sadly is not as colourful for this class of workers. Although they have been serving the train passenger ever since the inception of the Indian Railway, licensed porters even today are not Railway employees.
They are merely authorised by the Railways to provide porter services within the station premises, against a monthly license fee and are bound by certain terms and conditions. One would expect at least a little more recognition of the profession, given the fact that a porter’s license is granted by the President of India! And while the Railways do not put a tab on their earning potential, it does fix an official rate for their services.
The Railway’s primary objective while creating this class of workers was to ensure that luggage transportation facilities are available to all train passengers at all times and at reasonable rates. To achieve this objective, the Railways decided to authorise a certain number of people to provide coolie* services at various stations, and to revise this number periodically in accordance with growing passenger traffic over time.
While most of us would share the perception that getting into an entry level profession like this would be a cakewalk, reality turns out to be a different picture altogether. Given the regulation raj* that our government follows, everything from the number of new licensees to the selection procedure is decided by the Railway authorities. And though it might come as a surprise, even this one requires political connections and some little palm greasing!
This study was initially aimed at understanding the procedure followed for licensing of railway porters by the Delhi Division of Northern Railway. However, as we went along we discovered a variety of interesting issues which were both startling and thought provoking and which revolve around our very own coolie chacha! *
These issues, to name a few, include the perpetuity characteristic of a porter’s license; the huge premium commanded by a porter’s license; the strange rules regarding transfer of licenses and the illegal practices that fall out from these loose laws. We attempt to showcase and make the reader aware of these issues, which are largely unintended consequences of our current systems and policies and need to be tackled urgently.
The good, bad and ugly of being a coolie
As is already mentioned above, the licensed railway porter is not an employee of the Indian Railway. He is licensed by the Railways to earn a livelihood by offering his services to railway passengers for transport of their luggage. He is required to follow certain rules and regulations, failing which his license can be suspended or cancelled. Licensed porters are also not governed by the labour laws of the country or any other act.
* The Hindi words coolie, raj and chacha translate to porter, regime and uncle respectively in
English.
Although the Railways are in no way obliged to provide monetary or other benefits to licensed porters, they are offered some facilities purely as a goodwill gesture. In fact, the strong unionisation of porters in the past few years has helped them obtain these privileges from the Railways.
Licensed porters do not enjoy facilities like pension, gratuity and insurance. The only social security they have is the provision to pass on their license to a near relative who promises to bear their expenses once they are unable to work. Also, they are not entitled to any compensation by the Railways in case of injury, disablement or death while performing their duty at their place of work. Licensed porters do not have the provision of taking voluntary retirement and passing on the license to their breadwinner while they are still fit.
The benefits that accrue to a porter follow:
1. Complimentary travel pass for self in second/ sleeper class from station of work to any station in India, and back (granted annually)
2. One set of Privilege Ticket Order (PTO) in second/ sleeper class for self and spouse from station of work to any station in India, and back (granted annually). A PTO enables the porter to travel at one-third of the normal fare.
3. Medical facilities for out-door treatment of self, spouse and dependent children at Railway hospitals, in case such exist at his station
4. To have their children admitted in Railway schools wherever these exist, subject to availability of seats in these institutions, preference being given to wards of Railway employees
5. Two sets of summer uniform or one summer, one winter uniform (alternate)
6. Casual leave in a year as may be allowed by the Station Master
7. Free use of Railway’s light trolleys and hand barrows for carriage of luggage
8. Free use of waiting halls, latrines, canteens provided at stations and in some cases, a rest house (aka coolie shelter)
Ever since the porters’ unions have strengthened and become more influential, they have Constantly been portraying a sorry picture of the porter community, thus demanding more and more privileges for their coolie brothers.
Some of their most recently met demands include the extension of medical facilities to the porter’s family members in 1995 and provision of the PTO in 1998. However, there are a few demands put forward by various porter unions, which are still unfulfilled. Some of these are inclusion of indoor treatment at Railway hospitals under medical facilities to porters, provision of voluntary retirement after 20 years of service i.e. authority to transfer license while being fit and inclusion of porters under Workmen’s Compensation Act. Though licensed porters do not enjoy any housing facilities provided by the Railways, there is a provision for a Coolie Rest House or Coolie Shelter at most big stations. However, this shelter has the capacity to accommodate only a handful of the large porter strength at these stations. While this set of porters make the rest house their home, others group up and rent cheap accommodation where they chip in and stay together. The Coolie Shelters also in most cases are shabby and cluttered with their beds and their clothesline in the same premises!
On the flip side, the good part about being a licensed porter is that you are your own boss. This group of men are the fortunate few who can enjoy the luxury of taking an afternoon nap while at work! One is free to choose his hours of work and can put in anything ranging from two hours to sixteen hours a day. How much time a porter puts in broadly depends on his capacity to work and his urge to earn more. Putting in eight hours of sincere work each day, a licensed porter 1 As listed in “Terms and Conditions of Working of Licensed Porters
can earn a handsome 10-15 thousand rupees per month. In most cases, however, these porters sit idle and effectively work for only about two to three hours each day.
I still love the profession—how do I enter?
Like we already warned you, obtaining a porter’s license is as knotty as most other government licenses! Quite unaware of this fact when we started off, one of us actually dressed up in rags and reached the station, all set to apply for a license and experience the process first-hand! While we presumed it would be a short and simple procedure, we soon learnt how painstakingly complicated and time consuming the process was. We describe the process in detail for your enlightenment.
First, it is not very often that the Railways come out with openings for licensed porters. Although it is required that the demand for porters at various stations be assessed on a regular basis, the system in practice is quite ad-hoc. The average time span between fresh recruitments for the Delhi Division is 3-4 years, with the last batch of new entrants recruited in 1998. The process for recruitment of porters was initiated again in December 2002, but is still underway and unfinished.
Arriving at Vacancies
The prime factor that governs the demand for porter services is the passenger traffic at a given station. Since the number of long-distance trains (originating, terminating and passing through a station) has a very high correlation with passenger traffic at that station, it is used as the best indicator for porter demand.
It is true that the Rajdhani Express would carry more porter-requiring passengers and hence produces more demand than the Magadh Express, which is bound for economically backward states. In addition, the quantum of wheeled suitcases and other easily portable luggage affects the demand for porter services. However, the Railways do not go into much detail during their analysis and are concerned only with the number of trains.
In case a review takes place, all station managers are required to assess the situation at their respective stations and submit a report stating their requirements.
The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) is the competent authority with regard to recruitment of licensed porters. After a proposal for additional requirement of licensed porters is approved by the DRM, the following process is initiated:
1. Publishing openings: The Commercial Department, Delhi Division, Northern Railway publishes openings by way of a “Vacancy” advertisement in leading national dailies giving details of the number of vacancies at various stations, eligibility criterion, required documents and the application deadline. Interestingly, the latest opening published in December 2002 in the Times of India appeared on Page 14, the sports page and the advertisement measured a mere 28 sq. cm. in size, which is about one-fortieth the size of a newspaper page! A high level of ambiguity is also evident in the advertisement (notice: other documents)
2. Receiving applications: The Railways receive responses to the vacancies published from aspiring coolies through registered post. An estimate of the vacancies to applicant ratio is 1:100.2 2 Source: Brij Pal, Office Superintendent (Catering), Delhi Division.
Given the level of ambiguity in the 2002 advertisement, the Railways received a wide variety of documents accompanying the applicants’ bio-data. These documents ranged from ration cards to college degrees to SC/ST certificates. Even though there is no requirement for any educational qualifications, majority of applicants had completed their school education. That these educated youth apply for a porter’s license reflects the magnitude of unemployment that has gripped our nation.
3. Scrutiny of applications: The received applications are scrutinised by the Commercial Department and arranged in alphabetical order. All applicants who have been able to provide the required documents along with their application are then sent interview letters.
The interview letter mentions the date and venue of the interview. Besides, it gives a list of the documents that the interviewee has to produce on the day of the interview. These are:
a) Valid proof of Date of Birth
b) Certificate showing verification of character and antecedents from the police station where
applicant resides
c) Three copies of applicant’s recent passport size photograph
d) Interview letter issued by Railways
Another point to note is that the interviewee has to bear all expenses from his place of residence to New Delhi. The Railways do not provide any Travel Allowance.
4. Screening: The Screening Committee screens all eligible applicants over a couple of months’ time span. The Screening Committee appointed by the Railways consists of three members. These are: a) Railway Officer: He/ She is usually a gazetted officer of Northern Railway and can be the Divisional Commercial Manager (DCM), Divisional Traffic Manager (DTM) or Assistant Commercial Manager (ACM). This officer is nominated from within the Railways by the DRM.
b) Employment Officer: He/ She is a senior scale officer nominated by the District Employment Officer.
c) Education Officer: He/ She is nominated by the Education Department and is usually the principal of a government school. The DRM is the approving authority for the Screening Committee. The interview process focuses on physique and medical fitness of the applicant. The primary concern of the committee is to ensure that those selected for the job have adequate load-carrying capacity. In order to assess this, all applicants are required to lift up and carry sand filled sacks weighing about forty kilos, which is the average weight that passengers normally carry. It is ensured that they can lift these weights at one go and without too much
effort or difficulty.
5. Final list: Names of those selected for the job are submitted to the DRM. A list of selected candidates is put up at the DRM’s office. The DRM’s office then issues appointment letters and the porter is made to sign an agreement.
On appointment, a licensed porter is provided the followinga) Badge with license number inscribed.
b) Two pairs of uniforms for the summer and winter seasons respectively.
Licensed porters are required to pay an amount of Rs 10 as one time security deposit (refundable) and a monthly license fee depending on the kind of station they operate on.
For A-class stations, with over 150 porters: Rs 10 per month.
For B-class stations, with 50-150 porters: Rs 5 per month.
The legacy that is the golden arm-badge!
Since licensed railway porters are not entitled to any kind of old-age pension or retirement benefits, the Railways have made a provision for them to live comfortably through their grey years by permitting them to transfer their license to an inheritor, against the promise that he will take care of their financial and other requirements in their last years.
According to the Railway Board policy, a licensed porter’s badge may be transferred to his son or if he has no son or his son is not alive, to his near relative in the event of his death or when he becomes old, infirm or very sick and is not able to carry out his duties properly. Near relatives here include the porter’s brother, his brother’s son (nephew) and his wife’s brother (sala).
The transfer of badges takes place at the station itself where gazetted officers such as the Station Managers, Station Masters or Area Officers are the competent authority to accept such transfers.
The following documents are required to be produced in case of a transfer:3
1. Medical certificate by Railway doctor, certifying the retiring porter (applicant) as medically unfit for work
2. Fitness certificate of transferee, issued by a Railway doctor
3. Affidavit indicating that the applicant is the sole earning member of his family thus proving their dependence on him; and that the transferee is his nearest relative
4. Affidavit indicating that the transferee will bear the expenses of the applicant post-retirement, or of the widow of the deceased licensed porter
5. No Objection Certificate for transfer of badge from both transferee and transferor (or his widow, in case of death)
6. Police verification report of transferee
7. Proof of residential address from sarpanch. *
The transferee should not have worked as a licensed porter for Indian Railway in the past. Also, it has to be established that the transferee does not have any other source of income and is in dire need for work. The competent authority is supposed to personally scrutinise each case and to further verify in case of doubtful cases. In case of a bogus affidavit, the badge should be cancelled and an FIR4 registered.
Carrying load causes impotence!
While the system of transfer of licenses was initiated with a noble cause, it did not take too long for people to start misusing it. Being a long-term investment with flexible work and fair returns, a porter’s license was soon in demand attracting a high premium. Touts and agents would get bogus affidavits prepared and people paid huge sums of money to obtain these licenses secondhand.
Moreover, these premiums have been increasing over time at a rapid rate, giving rise to a possibility for arbitrage.
3 As per Policy Letter issued by Railway Board in 1995
* Sarpanch translates to Village Head in English 4 Stands for First Information Report, which is lodged at the police station to report a crime
How to transfer a licence
If you are lucky enough to get selected during the time that the Indian Railways is actually recruiting, you can get your porter's licence for a mere Rs 10. But, on the other hand, if you have to actually 'buy' a licence, how do you go about it? The Railways specifies some fairly stringent norms before a licence can be transferred.
According to the Railway board policy, a licensed porter's badge may be transferred to his son, or, if he has no son, to his near relatives in the event of his death or when he becomes too old or infirm to carry on with his duties properly. The list of near relatives specified includes the porter's brother, his brother's son, and even his brother-in-law. It is the last one which is the most interesting because it provides just the loophole needed for the transfer trade to flourish.
The transfer of badges requires a railway doctor to certify that the retiring porter is medically unfit for work. The person whom the badge is being transferred to also requires a fitness certificate from the railway doctor. Apart from that, the other conditions include:
Providing an affidavit indicating that the applicant is the sole earning member of his family, thus proving its dependence on him; and that the transferee is his nearest relative
Another affidavit indicating that the transferee will bear the expenses of the applicant post-retirement, or of his widow in case the licence belongs to a dead porter
A no objection certificate for the transfer of the badge from both the transferee and transferor (or his widow, in case of death)
Police verification report of the transferee
Proof of residential address from the sarpanch
The transferee should not have worked as a licensed porter with the Indian Railways in the past. Moreover, he has to show that he has no other source of income and, therefore, is in dire need of work. A competent authority, usually the commercial department, is supposed to scrutinise all the cases, and verify the doubtful cases. In the case of a bogus affidavit, the badge is required to be cancelled.
The 'hadh' system
Porters follow a fairly systematic procedure while offering their services. For departing passengers, licensed porters use the queue system and get to the passengers in turn.
The case of serving passengers arriving from other stations is slightly more peculiar. Whenever an outstation train is about to arrive at a particular platform, porters start to assemble there some minutes before its arrival. Along the platform there are demarcations that divide the platform length into a number of parts, called hadh, each extending to about 50 metres, or equal to the length of a train compartment. In each hadh, only about four or five porters assemble initially. There is tacit understanding that they approach the passengers and get customers according to the same order in which they appeared in the hadh. They do not try to undercut each other, at least in the beginning.
In practice, the whole business of transferring licences has given rise to a thriving ecosystem. Touts who promise to do everything - from getting the medical certificate, to preparing the affidavits, and to making sure that the whole process is completed quickly - flourish in the shadows. Even legal heirs of the licences sometimes take recourse to touts simply to get the transfer done easily. Take Jeet Singh of Nizamuddin. When his father expired in 1998, he found it impossible to get the licence transferred the first time he applied for it. Finally, he paid Rs 20,000 to get it transferred in 2000.
On an average, 25-30 licences change hands every year. In over 70% of the cases, the transferee is shown to be the brother-in-law (saala of the porter). In two recent cases (badge number 1028 and 1317) at the New Delhi railway station, the original licensees who were bachelors showed that they were transferring the licenses to their saalas!
It isn't as if the Railway authorities are unaware of the racket. In the early 1980s, the transferring of licences was even banned. But in 1988, Rajiv Gandhi ordered its restoration. Since then, everyone agrees that at least half the transfers taking place do so for pure monetary considerations even though a random check of three licences carried out by the Indian Railways failed to detect any irregularities. As most of the illegal transfers happen through the brother-in-law channel, Ravi Prakash Varma, a member of Parliament, had even written to the Northern Railway officials in 2001, demanding the exclusion of transfers to saalas.
As long as the inefficiencies of the Licence Raj continue, most Railway officers agree, the practice will remain. It will be business as usual in the Indian railway station.
This article is based on a research project on the porter economy for the Centre for Civil Society, a New Delhi-based libertarian economic think tank. The author can be contacted at cinghal@yahoo.com. 
