Telangana: Women conductors oppose double duty

Hyderabad: The working conditions of women conductors of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), especially in rural areas and districts, is not conducive, lacks many facilities and needs drastic improvement. 

TSRTC has around 2,500 women conductors. About 200 of them have children to look after and other home duties yet due to lack of staff in rural areas, the management insists that they must do double duty. They are paid an allowance for over time (OT), but a majority of the women say they don’t want the OT and are being forced to work a second shift.

Indira, a conductor from Karimnagar district said that though the management provides maternity leave for six months, conductors once they return to work, are immediately given additional duties without consideration for the fact that they also have a baby to attend to. 

“Earlier, the management used to allocate duties to women conductors in high-end buses like deluxe, super deluxe in districts, and Veera/Metro Liner, Metro Express in GHMC limits. But now women conductors are working in all buses, including Pallevelugu/ordinary,” she said.

A conductor from Mahbubnagar, who does not want to be named, said that though the management provides maternity leave, it does not pay house rent allowance (HRA) during the leave period. “Other government departments are considering HRA during maternity leave,” she says. She also has been compelled to work double shift and gets off late, well after 9 pm.

 “I have a 11-month-old boy and am forced to work two shifts, though I need to take care of my children after completing my duty. Working beyond 9 pm is horrible for women conductors in rural areas. After we finish the shift after 9 pm, there is no transport. How can we reach home safely? As per the rule book, we have to work eight hours on one shift,” she said. 

She adds, We work for nine to ten hours in a shift, and it takes two hours for the journey between home and the bus depot. During a double shift we work for almost 16 hours without rest. There are no counselling centres for women conductors in RTC depots for us to share our issues.

Managing director of TSRTC, G.V. Ramana Rao, “Double duty is mostly given to male conductors and in case of necessity it is assigned to women conductors.”  Women conductors from the RTC’s GHMC zone do not serve a double shift but they have other problems. “The situation in the city is totally different. A majority of alighting points, change-over points, and bus stations don’t have toilets,” said another woman conductor. 

Think about women conductors who work between Patancheru-NGOs colony, Dilsukhnagar-Kondapur, Kondapur-Secunderabad, Patancheru-LB Nagar, Patancheru-Dilsukhnagar and other routes with no toilets for us, says a woman conductor.  At Sangeeth change-over point in Secunderabad, NGOs colony, Patancheru, Lingampally and other places, there are no toilets for us, she adds. 

What they want

•  Light duties for pregnant women and new mothers. 
•  End work by 9 pm
•  Toilets and rest rooms at depots, bus stations and change-over points.
•  Not insisting on double shifts
•  Providing women counsellors at depots as per the recommendations of the Women's Protection Committee chaired by Poonam Malakondaiah.