MADURAI: Like our trains, they also work 24X7 in all railway stations. In their red shirts, they are the ones present on all platforms when trains arrive.Carrying passengers’ luggage gives them livelihood. But the Corona crisis lockdown has given a red signal to their survival during this difficult time when they lost daily earnings due to cancellation of trains.
On 10th April 2020, the railway porters at Madurai Railway Junction here have made an appeal to the Central Government, Ministry of Railways and to the State governments to help them on humanitarian grounds.
The Southern Railway Madurai Division is helping several affected people with food, the Commercial Department staff of Madurai Division supplied groceries to porters, but what these struggling porters want is some relief assistance to compensate for daily earnings loss.
“We know only carrying the luggage weight on our shoulders.But the last 15 days has changed our life since there are no trains and passengers…..There are 168 porters in Madurai Division of Southern Railway. Like that, there are 20,000 licensed porters in India. We request the Centre and Railway Ministry to come to our rescue and help us with assistance relief amount,” porters M.Ravi and Khaja, said here today.
