Cattle Class

A few weeks earlier when Mr. Shashi Tharoor referred to the economy class passengers as CATTLE CLASS, it created quite a furore. But he might not have ever got up in the General Sitting compartment of any long distance train in India. I suspect if he had done so what name he would have given! And it wouldn’t have created any furore as well.
I have been unfortunate enough to be in them and seen them from close quarters. Last Wednesday was one such occasion. I got into the GS compartment of 2809 Mumbai-Howrah Mail from Nagpur to Tumsar, a one hour journey which seemed like eternity to me. The bogie was full upto the brim but it swallowed more and surprisingly adjusted them in as well though with great discomfort! I had read about the poor state of Third class passengers back in early decades of the previous century in Gandhiji’s autobiography. I don’t think much has changed ever since then. The bogies are still crowded and travelling in them is equally inhuman. And it’s not only in the train I travelled but it’s the story all across the country. Railways have increased so many trains along all routes but have failed to address to the apathy of the general passengers. With such a booming population in the country, this along with the Waiting List drama is the biggest problem. Travelling in these compartments is very difficult but still there is no other way to travel across the country for the poor masses. Such crowd usually brings with it freak accidents and unsanitary conditions. The passengers are to be blamed as well as they pay very less attention to the sanitary conditions in the trains (which are bad even in the elite A/C coaches).
It’s time when Railways have to take care of the problem. The numbers of bogies in the trains have to be increased and apart from it the condition of the local trains has to be improved. It was common in India to see that the trains usually came late. Now the situation of Express trains has improved a lot (With so many Superfast trains it’s bound to be!). But the locals (Not of the Metros where they are the elite) are in a bad condition as usual. They run with erratic timings and come and go as they wish. Now if they are regulated, increased in number and made a little faster, the passengers will throng those trains as they are cheap to travel as well. This will ease the pressure on the long-distance trains and the unsatisfactory travelling can be avoided.
I know the problem cannot be removed ever with such an alarming population explosion but at least some order can be brought into the problem.