“Swachh Bharat”
Cleanliness in Railways – Background
A recently conducted large citizen poll rated that Cleanliness should be the Number 1
priority for Indian Railways (52%) ahead of Safety (31%), Better Reservation Systems (12%)
and Food Hygiene (5%). That explains the pulse of Citizens of India as to what they expect
from Indian Railways.
Building on the poll and discussions in the Transform India with Modi citizen community, the
Swachh Bharat initiative in context of the Indian Railways was discussed in Ministry of Urban
Development’s Swaachh Bharat circle. With over 225,000 citizens in the community, the key
Issues, Root Causes and Solutions were identified.
The citizen community hopes that the necessary actions will be taken under the Swachh
Bharat Mission by the Railways Ministry to implement some of these issues and drive a
much cleaner Railways experiences for citizens of India.
Cleanliness Issues in Railways 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 to improve Cleanliness 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. Cleaning of the bogies and stations should be done under proper supervision
8. People should be sensitised about their fellow passengers
9. Only valid ticket holders to be allowed inside the railway station
10. Price of the platform tickets should could also be increased to control unnecessary
entry by non-travellers
11. Awareness campaigns should be organised
12. Bio toilets should be scrapped and the ones like in aircrafts should be installed
13. Toilets inside the trains should be cleaned after regular intervals
14. People should be fined heavily for ticketing violations
15. CCTV cameras should be installed and effective use should be made
16. Sign boards should be put up at different places with the violation and fines printed
on them
17. The attendants and catering staff should be trained to create awareness among the
passengers
18. Smart cards for vendors & their staffs and coolies should be prepared to prevent
unauthorised access
19. Out-sourced agencies should be made more responsible & require strict inspection
by railway authorities
20. Beggars and unauthorized vendors should not be allowed inside the platform
21. Passenger policy/rights should be posted inside the train
22. A crackdown should be made on people without tickets/platform tickets
23. Elaborate advertisements in TV & Radio should be done to spread awareness
24. Government should release a series of such educational videos for the schools,
colleges, TV stations
25. Use of toilets to be restricted while trains halt in railway stations
26. Sewage collection & better disposal methods should be found
27. Display videos on civic sense at stations Price of the platform tickets should be
increased to control unnecessary entry by non-travellers.
28. Entry of passengers into the stations should be allowed only 1 hour before the departure
time of the train
29. All smoking, pan masala, guthka shops should be banned on stations
30. TTEs should be given the dual responsibility of checking tickets and overseeing
cleanliness inside the trains
Cleanliness in Railways – A few citizem 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 and 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 minutes
prior to departure of that train. Waiting rooms can be a block outside the entry with
for passengers before this time. Platforms are very crowded and serve 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
