Indian Railway launched many new facilities for Women and Children passengers to ensure safety, comfort and convenience, including Facilitation Centers for Women passengers and Janani Sewa Schemes for mothers and babies etc.. Following are the details and list of Indian Railway stations having these facilities.
Janani Sewa and Women Facilitation Centers by Railway
BABY FEEDING CORNERS AT RAILWAY STATIONS
Updated : 25.02.2021
A Baby Feeding (Lactation) Kiosk to facilitate nursing mothers set up by the Rotary Club of Hyderabad East, Rotary International District 3150 in coordination with South Central Railway was inaugurated at Secunderabad Railway Station i.e., 23rd February 2021.
The Kiosk is located oÂn Platform No. 10 at Secunderabad Railway Station which is an important rail hub and busy Railway station oÂn SCR. The kiosk with the cubicles set around will immensely help the Nursing mothers duly providing privacy for lactation(breastfeeding) of their kids while undertaking rail journey.
Earlier, as a pilot project during the year 2019, the first as such Baby Feeding Kiosk was set up at Begumpet Railway Station by the Rotary International District 3150.
Updated : 05.07.2017
Nursing mothers undertaking a train journey will now be able to breastfeed away from prying eyes with over 100 major railway stations across the country being equipped with “baby feeding corners”, a famous Newspaper reported.
The move follows a letter from the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry, headed by Maneka Gandhi, in April to the Railway Ministry seeking feeding-friendly spaces at railway stations.
The Railway Ministry has asked all its zonal heads to provide a segregated area within the waiting hall at all important stations to enable lactating mothers to feed their babies, as per a letter written last week by Member (Traffic), Railway Board, to Secretary, WCD.
“The corner is provided with a small table and a chair with appropriate partition/ screen around it,” the letter said. As on date, more than 100 waiting halls have been provided with this facility, as per the communication.
WOMEN FACILITATION CENTERS BY INDIAN RAILWAY
Southern Railway again opened all Woman Facilitation Centers in five more stations including Coimbatore, Tiruchchirappalli, Madurai, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram railway stations on 01.11.2016. With this, Southern Railway now has a total of seven such centers, as the centers in Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore railway stations were opened earlier this month.
This new initiative of Southern Railway, which is the first of its kind on Indian Railways, provides a place for woman passengers to seek travel related assistance and is crewed round the clock by women staff from the Commercial and the Railway Protection Force departments. The counter provides the assistance needed by women passengers and in addition to this also provides help in lodging complaints with the Government Railway Police, access to prepaid auto services etc.
In addition to the All Woman Facilitation Centers, Baby Feeding Centers, where nursing mothers are given the necessary privacy to take care of their infants, have also been opened in these stations.In Coimbatore, Tiruchchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore stations, the Baby Feeding Centers are located within the All Woman Facilitation Centers whereas in Madurai and Kozhikode, the Baby Feeding Centers are located inside the Women’s waiting rooms.
JANANI SEWA SCHEME OF INDIAN RAILWAY
As announced in the Rail Budget 2016-17, Zonal Railways have been advised to ensure availability of baby food, hot milk and hot water at Railway stations on payment basis. Presently, the items under Janani Sewa Scheme are available on most of the major Railway stations. Further, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been advised to ensure availability of children’s Menu through e-catering scheme. At present, children’s menu are available through e-catering scheme for all trains passing through New Delhi, Lucknow Jn., Lucknow, Jaipur, Ajmer, Howrah, Chennai Egmore, Pathankot Jn. and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway stations. Sanitary Pad Vending Machine at Railway Stations
The scheme called Janani Sewa was launched in June 2016 by the Railway Minister to provide baby staples for the babies in 25 leading stations. The stations including New Delhi, Mumbai CSTM, Mumbai Central, Howrah, Chennai Central, Nagpur, Pune, Surat, Lucknow, Moradabad etc. and other stations are included in the list. The scheme is mainly introduced to provide baby foods in trains not in stations. But at the first place the railway board introduced the food in stations only and expected to gradually provide the same in trains as well.
The Facilities under Janani Sewa Scheme
As mentioned that the Janani Sewa scheme is launched to provide baby foods for the babies who are unable to consume any food served by the railway authority. Under the scheme hot milk, hot water and also baby food will be vastly available in the leading railways stations in India. Now for any reason if the train gets delayed the mothers will get everything for their children in stations only.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (SOP) FORÂ CHILDRENÂ BY RAILWAY
Safety of Runaway Children At Stations
The Ministry of Railways, in coordination with Ministry of Women and Child Development and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Also issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which includes a protocol for rescue of young children found abandoned on railway stations or trafficked through trains, the Railway Press release said. The SOP has been implemented on 20 railway stations and it is been decided to implement it on additional 15 railway stations.
Accordingly, Ministry of Women and Child Development in coordination with Ministry of Railways, have set up Child Help Desks/Kiosks at 20 nominated Railway Stations which are crewed by representatives of the organization nominated by Ministry of Women and Child Development.
The runaway/missing/abandoned children are rescued from stations by Child Help Group comprising of Station Superintendent/Station Master, Station House Officer (SHO)/ Government Railway Police (GRP), Inspector/Railway Protection Force (RPF), Sr. Section Engineer (Works), and in trains by GRP, RPF, Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) and Ticket Collector (TC). The children so rescued are handed over to these Child Help Desks/Kiosks and in turn to Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in coordination with GRP. In addition, RPF supplements the efforts of GRP of the State concerned in rescuing the children from trafficking and to ensure safety and security of children at stations. Security Helpline No.182 is also operational over Indian Railways for the security related assistance to the passengers in distress.