Empowering women, Indian Railways hires over 4,500 women personnel in an aggressive recruitment drive

• The Indian Railways concluded its massive recruitment drive for Railway Protection Force (RPF).
• It hired over 10,500 personnel — almost half of which — 4,517 — were women.
• It shortlisted 1,120 sub-inspectors, 8,619 constables and 798 ancillary staffers from the recruitment drive, which was started in May 2018.
• The recruitment to these paramilitary forces was based on a computer test for the first time, in order to ensure transparency.

India’s largest employer, the Railways is taking steps to reduce the country’s gender gap in the workforce.

In its recently concluded recruitment drive for Railway Protection Force (RPF) — which is dedicated to investigate criminal activities, the Railways hired over 10,500 personnel — almost half (48%) of which were women.

Presently, women constables account for a mere 2.25% of RPF. To change this, Indian Railways reserved 50% of the jobs for women. It shortlisted 1,120 sub-inspectors, 8,619 constables and 798 ancillary staffers from the recruitment drive, which was started in May 2018. Of this, 4,517 were women.

"For this biggest RPF recruitment drive, we received over 82 lakh applications, including 14.25 lakh for the post of sub-inspectors against 1,120 vacancies, and 59 lakh for the posts of constables. For the ancillary posts, we got nine lakh applications," Atul Pathak, chairman of the central recruitment committee, told news agency PTI.

The recruitment to these paramilitary forces was based on a computer test this time, in order to ensure transparency. The Railways is now conducting the police verification of the shortlisted candidates to get them onboard.

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