NEW DELHI: The application fee collected from women candidates are being refunded to those who appear in the examinations for jobs in the railways.
This has been initiated by the Railways in a much-needed move with an aim to facilitate women in railway services to bridge the existing gender gap in various departments.
At present, the overall participation of women in railways services is estimated to be just around 7.87% of total employment in various departments of Indian Railways (IR).
In fact, the number of women personnel in the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has increased a bit in the last few years compared to other departments of railways but more are required to done to increase the representation of women employees in the Railways.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday in a written reply in the Lok Sabha said that only 98,540 women employees are working among 12,52,347 employees in various departments of the railway.
He added: “In RPF, women personnel have increased to 9% from 3% of the total sanctioned strength.”