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Radha: the creator of 'Rail hostesses' concept
Radha Devi with the first batch of train hostesses
K Radha Devi of Tirupati presented her idea before then Railway minister Suresh Prabhu and after intense deliberations it was accepted. Now, 20 women are working as rail hostesses in two trains run by IRCTC and several others are in training
One bad experience led to a novel idea in the mind of a woman who studied only up to 10th class but always wants to achieve something to become unique. When K Radha Devi of Tirupati was travelling to Varanasi along with her son and daughter in 2015, she faced some unpleasant experience with the caterer's coach attendants. The way they served the food and handled the bed roll was unbearable and reminded her of the experiences in flight and the way air hostesses attend to the passengers.
Then an idea of rail hostesses was flashed across her mind. She felt they can take care of the passengers well with dignity. Radha prepared her proposal and presented it before then Railway minister Suresh Prabhu in 2017 and impressed him by saying that it will also generate employment to several youth and railways can earn name and fame with the quality services.
After intense discussions at different stages, the ministry has finally approved the proposal in 2019 and by the time the plan could be implemented, the train services were stopped due to pandemic. Undeterred by these hurdles, Radha put her plans into action and made her dreams come to a reality when 10 women joined as rail hostesses in IRCTC run Tejas express between Chennai – Madurai on December 18, 2021 and another 10 also have joined recently. These 10 women will join the Shatabdi express between Chennai – Bengaluru. Further, 10 hostesses each are to be sent for Mumbai and Bengaluru while 40 are required for Delhi.
"There are 18650 trains run daily on tracks in the country in which 2.5 cr people are travelling in non-AC compartments and another 12.5 lakh in AC coaches. If rail hostesses are introduced in 10000 trains, it can create employment to a minimum of 10 lakh women" she opined.
Own curriculum was developed to train the staff and training will be imparted in Hyderabad for six months for which they need to pay Rs.90000 including food, accommodation etc., For this purpose, she established 'Indira Institute of rail crew and rail hostesses' for which she is the founder CEO.
Radha earlier started her journey as beautician in 1994 by setting up a parlour. Then she trained about 1000 women as beauticians. She trained several women in tailoring also. But the quest for achieving big things continues. She started 'Nayi Brahmana mahila seva sangham' and trained women barbers in 2004. TTD was convinced to employ women barbers. For the first time 20 women barbers started working with TTD and the number has grown to hundreds now.
After her husband died in 2015, she entered pulp export business for some time and operated from Delhi. Her achievements were recognised and rewarded by the governments. Then Chief Minister of AP N Chandrababu Naidu presented 'Srama Shakti' award on May 1, 2017 and received 'Nari Shakti' award from President of India Ramnath Kovind on March 8, 2019 besides various other awards. Her ambition is to empower more and more women in trains as hostesses as there is tremendous potential.
