At Mumbai Metro’s Charkop depot, women employees bridge the gender gap

#WatchNow video of women working at Charkop metro depot site of Mumbai Metro Line 2A&7 . This video shows female employees are on rolling stock pantograph which is mounted on the roof of the rake @ie_mumbai @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/O5vOO3TG4x

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“I’m now a certified professional to do this job,” said Kajol, who trained in a Metro car shed in Hyderabad for almost three months and thereafter was again trained by the Maha Mumbai Metro Rail Operations Corporations (MMMOCL).

Unlike MMMOCL, the Metro One between Versova and Ghatkopar, which is the first Metro of Mumbai, doesn’t have women employees in the rolling stock maintenance division. (Express)

Kajol, who is a technician in Metro’s rolling stock division, said she and her other women colleagues work in three shifts, excluding night shift, as of now.

The Mumbai Metro Line 2A and 7 maintenance division in the car shed at Charkop has a 30 per cent women workforce, the largest in any maintenance division of Metro or railways in the country, according to MMMOCL, which looks after the maintenance and operations of both these lines, as well as other Metro lines.

The Charkop car shed has 305 employees, of which 63 are women technicians. Like their male counterparts, the women technicians also look after all types of maintenance work of the rolling stock — primary maintenance to inspection and repair.

“In a domain where largely physical work is involved, women are given equal opportunities here. Not just the maintenance division, women employees have equal representation in other departments of the company also,” MMRDA Commissioner S V R Srinivas said.

Rohini Pawar from Vidarbha, who also works in Metro Line 2A and 7 maintenance division in the car shed at Charkop, said that after every 72 hours, visual inspection of the rakes is done, which happens mostly at night and is done by their male colleagues. But every 15 days, a thorough inspection of the rakes is done by the women employees of the maintenance division also. “It is very challenging,” she said.

Unlike MMMOCL, the Metro One between Versova and Ghatkopar, which is the first Metro of Mumbai, doesn’t have women employees in the rolling stock maintenance division. Women employees work in AFC (Automatic Fare Collection) maintenance division.