Engendering Mumbai's Suburban Railway System Amita Bhide Ratoola Kundu Payal Tiwari A Study Conducted by Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences Engendering Mumbai’s Suburban Railway System Amita Bhide Ratoola Kundu Payal Tiwari A Study Conducted by Centre for Urban Policy and Governance Tata Institute of Social Sciences 2016 Contents List of Tables ...................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgement ............................................................................... 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................... 4 1 Introduction and Methodology .................................................... 9 1.1 The Suburban Railway System and the transitioning economic geography of Mumbai ................................................................................................................................. 9 1.2 Increased workforce participation rate amongst women in the city ...................... 11 1.3 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 13 2 Experiences of Commuting ........................................................ 19 2.1 Profile and travel behaviour of respondents .......................................................... 19 2.2 Affordability ............................................................................................................. 24 2.3 Accessibility ............................................................................................................. 26 2.4 Gender‐friendliness of coach design and services on train ..................................... 29 2.5 Security .................................................................................................................... 34 3 Analysis of Stations, Station Areas and Amenities ..................... 37 3.1 Perceptions of personal security in station areas and platforms ............................ 38 3.2 Inaccessibility and discomfort of women passengers stemming from design ........ 44 3.3 Experiences of comfort and convenience based on adequacy and usability of amenities ............................................................................................................................. 49 3.4 Inconvenience experienced due to lack of systemic responses, problems with management of stations and gaps in communication ........................................................ 53 3.5 Ranking of stations with respect to the availability and usability of amenities ...... 55 3.6 Summary of Issues at Stations: ............................................................................... 58 4 Conclusions and Recommendations .......................................... 59 4.1 Suggestions and recommendations for improvement ............................................ 63 5 Annexures .................................................................................. 72 5.1 Annexure I Literature Review and Overview of Quantitative Methodology .......... 72 5.2 Annexure II Calculation of Respondents ................................................................ 73 5.3 Annexure III Questionnaire for Survey .................................................................... 78 5.4 Annexure IV Station Audits ..................................................................................... 87 5.5 Annexure V Focussed Group Discussions (FGDs) .................................................. 122 5.6 Annexure VI Station Area Maps ............................................................................ 135 List of Tables Table 1: Distribution of sample of 1000 respondents ............................................................. 15 Table 2: Distribution of stations selected for study ................................................................ 17 Table 3: Frequency of commute by Rail Line .......................................................................... 20 Table 4 Travel frequency across Class in percentage .............................................................. 20 Table 5: Frequency of travel on fast and slow trains across lines ........................................... 21 Table 6: Total expenditure on travel by expenditure classes .................................................. 21 Table 7: Rail travel time as a proportion of overall travel time by expenditure class ............ 22 Table 8: Proportion of rail travel to overall travel time by class of travel ............................... 23 Table 9: Analysis of mode of transport in the first leg of the journey from home to the station. ..................................................................................................................................... 23 Table 10: Affordability of rail travel by expenditure class ....................................................... 24 Table 11: Affordability across class of travel ........................................................................... 25 Table 12: Affordability across Rail Lines .................................................................................. 25 Table 13: Distribution of affordability index across Railway Lines .......................................... 25 Table 14: Variation in indices of ticket accessibility across Railway Lines .............................. 28 Table 15: Variations in compartment design and services across Railway Lines .................... 29 Table 16: Availability of seat inside the train as per class of travel......................................... 32 Table 17: Availability of seat inside the train as per time of travel ......................................... 32 Table 18: Leg‐space during peak & off‐peak hours ................................................................. 32 Table 19: Announcements across the three lines of travel ..................................................... 33 Table 20: Experiencing harassment while commuting............................................................ 34 Table 21: Safety Index across Railway Lines ............................................................................ 35 Table 22 Safety Index across class of travel ............................................................................ 35 Engendering Mumbai’s Suburban Railway System Page | 1 Acknowledgement The authors would like to express their gratitude to Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) and the World Bank for commissioning and supporting this study on the accessibility needs of and challenges with regard to accessibility, safety and security, comfort and convenience faced by the growing numbers of women commuters on the Mumbai Suburban Railway Network. Mrs. Alka Mishra, CPO and Mrs. Smriti Verma, CFO, MRVC have given us enormous encouragement and paved the way for a smooth study. We are grateful to them for their constructive comments and support throughout the project. The World Bank social sector development, gender and transport experts have at various stages given us excellent feedback on the project and we hope to have done justice to the valuable suggestions. Various functionaries in MRVC have devoted significant time in helping us accessing data, in getting us permissions and bringing insight into the working of the suburban railway system. We thank them for their patience and diligence. The authors are deeply indebted to the Advisory Committee that was set up to facilitate the study and offer guidance at various tricky junctures. Mr. Ashok Datar ‐ transport expert, Mrs. Nandita Shah ‐ gender activist from Akshara, and Mrs. Bharati Sharma from the Maharashtra Mahila Parishad were integral to the study. The study required long hours in the trains, or train stations, often in extremely congested peak hour. We are therefore extremely grateful to Jayshree, Akriti Bhatia and Priti P. Jawre, our field investigators, who braved these conditions in order to collect the data in record time. They infused the study with their field experiences, deep insights and enthusiasm. The data entry was completed by Ms. Shalaka from MRVC. We would like to thank her for doing the task sincerely. Mr. Aravind Nagarajan, provided key support in formatting and coding of questionnaires and a preliminary analysis of survey data. The quantitative data analysis was carried out by Mr. Aniket U. Navalkar. We are thankful to both for lending their analytical skills to the project. Several key people have helped us enormously in the field in accessing respondents, in facilitating focussed group discussions and giving rich insights into the working of the railway system and how it affects women commuters. We thank them for their time and involvement in the study. Our study would have been woefully incomplete without the inputs of the station masters, RPF and GRPF personnel and we extend our thanks to each of the officials for engaging with us in the study. Engendering Mumbai’s Suburban Railway System Page | 2 The study would not have been possible without the enthusiastic participation by women commuters in our surveys, stations audits and focussed group discussions. We would especially like to thank the participants of the focussed group discussions ‐ the fisherwomen from Juhu Koliwada, the nurses and faculty at K.J Somaiya College of nursing, domestic workers from Koparkhairane, the Stree Mukti Sanghathana in Mumbra, BPO workers from NESCO and commuters groups for sharing with us their experiences and insights.