Bastar woman keeps a lonely vigil over tracks in Maoist turf
removing fishplates or placing boulders on the track.
But Savitri is unfazed either by the dangers that she courts routinely, or her unique position as the railways’ only woman field staff in the Maoist stronghold where a railway official was abducted recently.
“I simply do my job,” she says modestly.
But her superiors are impressed.
“As the lone woman in the signal department here, the work she does is extremely dangerous and courageous,” points out Ramraju, the station master in the nearby district headquarters of Dantewada.
Top police officials agree protecting the railway tracks connecting Kirandul with Jagdalpur is extremely challenging.
The stretch that Savitri guards is several kilometres from the last roadhead and remote.
“Though we have heightened vigil and the number of incidents has come down, it is very easy to derail trains here,” says Sunderraj P, the Dantewada deputy inspector general of police.
In between removing stones from the track, Savitri says her job is routine.
“How will I do my duty if I fear,” she says. Both her grandfather and father did the same job. She got the job in 2006 after her father died and is now the principal breadwinner for her family.
“I have mouths to feed,” the mother of two adds.
That she is a local helps in a region that security forces are wary about.
Villagers know her as the person who lets trains pass safely and often greet her with fruits and water. “Savitri is one of us,” says a villager. “She is the unique one,” corrects a railway official.