With inflation continuing its course of destabilising the living standards of the populace, the plight of porters at the Lahore Railway Station, who are denied a fixed salary and employment benefits, has only exacerbated.
Currently, almost 300 porters, colloquially referred to as coolies, work at the Lahore Railway Station, which receives a large influx of commuters every day, and resultantly generates substantial revenue through the luggage lifting service. However, the porters who dedicate their blood and sweat for the provision of the service, are not only paid a pittance for their labour but are also denied medical coverage, retirement benefits, and free education for their children, at a time when high costs of living have made welfare support for the underprivileged even more pertinent.
Mohammad Razzaq Chatha, a coolie from Sargodha, working at the Lahore Railway Station for the past 37 years, carried misery on his face as he spoke to The Express Tribune about his struggle to put food on his table. “I have five children who live with their mother back home in Sargodha. After a long month of gruelling labour, I have only Rs 30,000 in my pocket, a large percentage of which is sent back home to support my family. How can I afford three meals a day when I barely have any money to spare,” shared Chatha, who has yearned to eat a proper meal with bread and meat since ages.
Like Chatha, Muhammad Iqbal, another porter at the station, is a father of eight children of school going age. However, the hefty expenditure on rents and rations mean that none of his children can receive formal schooling.
“Even though the government does waive off the school fee and the costs of books; uniforms and travelling combined is unaffordable for us,” resented Iqbal.
While the living conditions of porters are devastating throughout the year, they are greatly aggravated during times of national emergency like Covid-19 or last year’s monsoon flooding.
“During the Covid-19 lockdown and the floods, the operation of trains was halted, and our lives came to a standstill. Since we do not have any job security, the moment passengers stop arriving, our livelihoods come to an end,” regretted Maqbool Ahmed, a porter from Lahore.
Ahmed further added that even when he earns extra cash during the holiday season, it is seldom of much value, because a significant portion of the earnings is paid to the contractor. According to sources, up to 30 per cent of the daily income of each porter is allocated for the contractor, who hires the porter through the stipulations put forward by the Pakistan Railways.
“Pakistan Railway’s SOP’s mandate the porter to pay us from their earnings,” exclaimed Muhammad Ashraf, the current contractor at the Lahore Railway Station. “While occasionally we do provide monetary support to the porters, it is the job of the government to provide them with medical facilities and educational opportunities,” he added.
In his response to the growing outcry of the railway porters, Chaudhry Naseem Iqbal, President of Pakistan Workers Federation expressed his sympathies.
“It is unfortunate that railway porters are not provided with welfare benefits and other civil rights like union formation. I would urge the government to include them in the workers category so that they may receive the employment benefits and social security that they deserve,” asserted Iqbal while talking to The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2023.
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