Only two women qualify as porters,one to join today

Not far from where young girls are murdered for daring to fall in love outside their caste,another male bastion will crumble on Friday....

Not far from where young girls are murdered for daring to fall in love outside their caste,another male bastion will crumble on Friday. Usha Devi,23,will report at Fatehpur railway station as the first woman porter in North Central Railways Allahabad division.

Usha,wife of a poor farmer in Anchitpur village in Fatehpur district,is one of the two women porters Nirmala Devi of Firozabad is the other who qualified from among 4,800 candidates,including 27 women,after undergoing physical and medical tests in July,2009,nearly a year after Railways allowed women to work as porters.

I must thank God that I was selected. My family is very poor. My husband has only 1.5 bigha agriculture land which is not sufficient to sustain a family of six, Usha told The Indian Express. Whatever my husband earns is mostly spent on medicines for my in-laws. Often,we had to go without proper food for days. Sometimes,I felt like committing suicide.

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But now Usha has a job,and many dreams. One of the them is to give her son and daughter a good education. I will start work from Friday. My father lives near the station. I will stay there. My children will get education in the city,she said.

But is she comfortable working amidst mostly male porters? She is not ashamed of the work,Usha says,and that is all that matters.

Meanwhile,Nirmala has not reported for the job or received her badge so far. Despite information,she did not come to take her badge on the given date. If she comes within a month,we will give her the badge. She has been selected for Tundla station, said North Central Railways PRO Amit Malviya.