With work dwindling during the pandemic, many railway porters in Bengaluru have switched professions.
The reasons are many: fewer people are travelling, and the ones who do travel aren’t carrying heavy luggage.
Many trains were cancelled in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Almost full scale operations resumed a year ago.
The Bengaluru Cantonment station has 52 licensed porters. Some like Satish Kumar are looking for other jobs. “I have a debt of Rs 50,000 to clear,” he says.
Suresh Prabhu, a 50-year-old porter at the KSR City Railway Station, is set to join a security agency by the end of November.
“I have two children and I want their education to continue uninterrupted,” he says. He says hanging around at the station without work is taking a toll on his mental health.
Long hours
Most porters work 12 to 14 hours a day. Fifty-six-year-old Sadashivam, working for 20 years at the Cantonment station, says NGOs and railway officials helped porters in the initial months of the pandemic.
“Only passengers coming from Guwahati carry heavy luggage. Those from other cities don’t carry much,” he says.
KSR City Railway Station has 282 porters. “We have not been getting a regular income for more than a year. Many of us are planning to quit in December,” says Kavi Urs from Tamil Nadu, working there for 10 years.
Ravikumar, another porter, is soon taking up the job of a driver with a private company.
Rules for porters
A porter can’t charge more than Rs 75 to Rs 100 for a job.
A senior official at the city station says porters are issued licences by the railways and are bound by rules and regulations.
“They are allowed to charge between Rs 75 and Rs 100. If they use trolleys then they can charge an extra fee," says the official.
Porters are not railway employees, but if they hold a licence, they get some benefits.
“They are entitled to admit their wards to schools run by the railways and get a pass once a year to travel,” says Aneesh Hedge, chief public relations officer, South Western Railways.
Licences can be cancelled if porters are guilty of overcharging, rudeness, damaging luggage, and drinking on duty. Porters caught stealing immediately lose their licences.