“Make Railways Better”

Cleanliness No. 1 Issue in Indian Railways

In a recent poll conducted in the 160,000 citizen strong circle “Transform India with Modi”, 50% of the respondents suggested that Improving Cleanliness of trains/stations should be the top priority for Government, ahead of Safety (35%), Reservation Systems (9%) and Hygienic Food (6%).

This indicates that Indians are ready for a Clean India and a Cleaner Railways.
Over 35,000 citizens in the Make Railways Better circle have given their inputs on various aspects of cleanliness including:

1. Civic Sense in Trains
2. Cleanliness in Trains and at Stations
3. Restricting entry on platforms and railway stations

The 35,000+ strong “Making Railways Better” online community has collectively identified the key issues, root causes and solutions for Cleanliness in Railways in India and this whitepaper covers the key takeaways. The community expects that the Ministry of Railways and any other associated Government agencies will work towards implementing the identified solutions.

Cleanliness Issues Identified:
1. People stick bills/posters outside trains and on platforms
2. Lack of cleanliness of coaches/ stations/ toilets
3. Using toilets when the train is stationary
4. People spitting on the station/on the tracks/inside the train
5. People defecating in the open at railway stations and on tracks
6. Travellers do not flush after using the toilet
7. Railways does not have adequate housekeeping staff to clean toilets
8. Garbage is thrown anywhere
9. Dustbins are missing from compartments, inadequate or not emptied timely
10. Rats and Cockroaches are common in compartments and pantry
11. Smoking in train compartments
12. People sleeping on the floor and pathways
13. People sleeping on the platforms
14. Beggars with no Civic Sense found onboard in trains and on stations

Root Causes Identified:
1. Railways has become too large an organization to be managed by the Government
2. Cleanliness standards set for the railway employees to follow are very low
3. The sense of cleanliness/ hygiene among the general public is missing
4. The stations/platforms cater to huge numbers and hence become tough to manage
5. Lack of accountability of cleaning staff, faulty/negligent auditing system
6. Lack of awareness and civic sense
7. Lack of sense of hygiene
8. Not enough dustbins on the stations and inside the train
9. Insensitivity towards fellow passengers
10. No fine/punishment for civic offences
11. Al lot of people are plain ignorant
12. Passengers know that the TTE hardly ever comes in the general class and hence they don’t feel the need to purchase tickets
13. Number of people traveling in the trains is far more than the capacity
14. Railways still has a very old style of working
15. A large population of people is still uneducated
16. Railways caters to a very large population and it becomes tough to regulate them
17. Railway police is always on its heels

Solutions Identified:
1. TTEs should make more visits inside the trains so that they can catch people traveling without ticket
2. There should be a fine on littering/spitting on stations and inside the train
3. Install more garbage bins on the railway stations and inside the trains
4. The cleaning staff needs to be made accountable for their work
5. One of the cleaning staff should travel the entire length of train with open dustbin in trolley, so that each passenger can just drop the waste without having to accumulate in the coach
6. Cleaning of stations and trains must be outsourced to private industry with service level contracts
7. People should be sensitised about their fellow passengers
8. Only valid ticket holders to be allowed inside the railway station
9. Awareness campaigns should be organised
10. Bio toilets should be scrapped and the ones like in aircrafts should be installed
11. Toilets inside the trains should be cleaned after regular intervals
12. People should be fined heavily for ticketing violations
13. CCTV cameras should be installed and effective use should be made
14. Sign boards should be put up at different places with the violation and fines printed on them
15. The attendants and catering staff should be trained to create awareness among the passengers
16. Smart cards for vendors & their staffs and coolies should be prepared to prevent unauthorised access
17. Out-sourced agencies should be made more responsible & require strict inspection by railway authorities
18. Beggars and unauthorized vendors should not be allowed inside the platform
19. Passenger policy/rights should be posted inside the train
20. A crackdown should be made on people without tickets/platform tickets
21. Elaborate advertisements in TV & Radio should be done to spread awareness
22. Government should release a series of such educational videos for the schools, colleges, TV stations
23. Use of toilets to be restricted while trains halt in railway stations
24. Sewage collection & better disposal methods should be found
25. Display videos on civic sense at stations

Cleanliness in Railways – Some citizen posts and comments:
1. Sir I am from Maharashtra and I have seen Nagpur railway station. It is very clean and build passenger friendly way. Why not others station adapt same way. For example when you travel with travelling bag having wheels so that you can pull it easily. To pull such travelling bag we need stiff platform not the steers. Puling friendly steers are present in Nagpur but not in any Delhi railway stations, Nizammuddin or New Delhi not anywhere. It is very hard for people to carry luggage on platform crossing steers. Please it is very small thing but it will make very big difference for people’s convenience – Yogesh Khandokar

2. Many problems are due to lack of self-discipline and lack of education at school level one presentation by railways or any team showing comparison of railway in other countries and deep rooting hygiene cleanliness self-discipline at school level in education can lead to permanent long term solution. Until we treat railway our own property it can’t be improved. for the current generation strict action fines CCTV camera bit terror or publicly insulting accused can be solution – Paras Haria

3. Stop the people and institutions who stick bills and posters inside the trains and station premises. Put heavy penalty of such people so that this should not happen again – Anurag Pandey

4. Allow only passengers inside railway stations , similar to airports – Sekhar Menon

5. While we point out in details the shortcomings of the Railways seldom do we delve into ourselves as to the utter lack of civic sense on our part. The Government can do only so much – Rajamadam Rajaram

6. Passengers sleep on lower berths even after 8 AM and during day time, causing inconvenience to co-passengers. Passengers to be strictly informed that they can oblige co-passengers and can sleep during day time only on top berths and not on lower and middle berths. Passengers to be informed not to discard waste, such as , used tea cups, water bottles and wraps of edible items , empty food trays, peanut peels below their seats – AS Rao

7. People generally ignore the fellow passengers. Inconvenience to others is not a concern to themselves. Behave self before demanding the rights from others. Educate self and behave well before expecting others to behave – BMC Kumar 8. Civic senses vary from person to person and region to region, so mandatory standardized rules should be published and strict supervision of those should be implemented for their adherence – Indusekhar Mukherjee

9. I feel we can't make change in the mind set of people very fast but if stations are like metro stations; it will have its impact. I haven't seen anyone littering the metro stations but the same crowd will go out and litter the streets and other public places. We should capitalise on this mind set and use it to improve railway stations – Deepa S Kumar

10. Impose heavy fine on spitting, littering, smoking and theft etc. on railway stations and trains. Heavy fines will prove as deterrent. How come Indians behave properly when abroad? Because they have to pay heavy fines and penalties – Sneh Gaur 11. Create break-away zones or eating zones on the platform for people to eat food. Eating on platforms should be strictly prohibited. Create smoking zones to prevent smoking at platforms. Food and eatables should be served only at food zones and not on platforms. For people travelling in trains food should be served on order in train itself – Sneh Gaur

12. We should admit the fact that we lack civic sense while boarding into or getting down from the trains. We don’t follow queue system and do not bother about the other passengers travelling with us. Everybody is in a hurry to get in and occupy his/her seat or get out onto the platform. This is mainly because of overcrowding in our trains. The number of trains running on our rails is insufficient to cater to the vast travelling public – Narasimha Rao

13. In trains we face many problems. Some uncultured (though educated!) people pretend as if they are watching something on their android phones but taking photos of ladies sitting opposite to them! Therefore, some seats may be reserved exclusively for ladies to avoid such problems. – Narendra Kumar

14. People urinate and have their little kids defecate on the tracks at the railway stations, throw away empty wrappers and fruit peals everywhere else but in the dustbin, spit paan masala/gutkha in the wash basins making it dirty enough for other passengers – Nihal Kumar

15. The passengers keeping the used wastes like tea cups, paper plates etc. inside the compartment or on the floor. Recently I travelled by the double decker from Chennai to Bangalore. Two well-educated young people changed their seat on the vacant seat to be boarded at the next station. They kept their wastage after breakfast on the floor and all the people started walking playing football with that. The railways have kept very good waste pin outside the compartment near the toilet. How to educate such passengers? – A Krishnamoorthy

16. Railways should display the rights of the passengers/and people who use railways first. Legible display inside the bogies will at least make some points to remember – James Roy

17. As it has been made a regulation that smoking in the train is punishable. Putting of dirty things in the train should be punishable and cameras should be fixed to identify it. In addition to this people should be educated about civic senses by the reputed, reliable NGOs of the country – Sudam Pradhan

18. Smart cards for vendors & their staffs should be prepared, the same should be applied to coolies. Through this we can ensure that they should not be overexploited in working hours and also can track the actual manpower – Tarun Julka

19. Yes there should be restricted entry . Entry to trains should be only twenty mins prior to departure of that train. Waiting rooms can be a block outside the entry with for passengers before this time. The platforms are so crowded and serves as a resting place with people sleeping etc. With this incorporation the crowds at station can be reduced easier for cleaning , better for using the battery vehicles and also improves safety – Asha Kumar