Under the arched iron rafters and newly installed LED canopies of India’s major railway junctions, an old routine unfolds against a fundamentally transformed landscape. Men clad in iconic red kurtas, shiny brass badges buckled tightly around their upper arms, sit on wooden benches along Platform 1. They watch thousands of passengers stream past. Decades ago, the arrival of an express train triggered a rush toward coach doors, where porters (sahayaks, traditionally known as coolies) would balance trunk after trunk atop rolled cloth turbans. Today, the porters mostly watch. The passengers walk by effortlessly, their fingers loosely curled around the retractable handles of four-wheel spinner suitcases rolling smoothly across newly laid, mirror-finish granite.

The modernisation of Indian Railways is among the most visible symbols of the country’s infrastructure drive. High-speed corridors, airport-like concourses, expansive escalators, panoramic lifts, and mechanised parcel carriers have dramatically improved passenger convenience. Yet within this rapid leap forward, roughly 20,000 licensed porters find themselves stranded in a precarious economic twilight. As stations modernise, the human infrastructure that carried generations of travelers across India’s rail network is quietly being rendered obsolete.

The Frictionless Station: When Upgrades Eliminate a Profession

The core reason for the collapse of the porter’s livelihood is not apathy, but architectural and technological displacement. For over a century, hiring a porter was not a luxury; it was a physical necessity. Railway platforms were cluttered, stairs across foot overbridges were steep and unforgiving, and luggage consisted of unyielding steel trunks, heavy canvas holdalls, and bulky bedding rolls. Navigating a family across five platforms at Old Delhi, Howrah, or Kanpur Central required sheer physical stamina.

Over the past decade, two quiet revolutions fundamentally altered that dynamic:

1. The Proliferation of Wheeled Luggage: The widespread availability of lightweight, durable polycarbonate trolley bags equipped with multi-directional wheels meant that passengers—including elderly travelers and families with children—could haul 25 kilograms of luggage with minimal physical effort.
2. Station Redevelopment and Universal Accessibility: Initiatives such as the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme have systematically eliminated the physical friction of passenger transit. Foot overbridges are increasingly flanked by wide ramps, high-capacity escalators, and transparent glass elevators.

When a traveler can roll their suitcase straight from a cab rank, through an automated ticket barrier, down a smooth concourse, into an elevator, and right up to the door of an air-conditioned coach, the demand for manual load-bearing drops to near zero. Battery-operated golf carts now cruise the length of platforms, carrying senior citizens and differently-abled passengers along with their baggage. While an undeniable triumph for universal accessibility, each new escalator installation chips away at the daily earning potential of the red-jacketed workers waiting below.

The Anatomy of an Informal Dilemma

The crisis facing railway porters is deepened by their peculiar legal and administrative status within the Indian Railways apparatus. Despite wearing official brass badges bearing serial numbers, adhering to strict licensing regulations, and working within railway premises under the oversight of station directors, porters are not railway employees.

They are classified as licensed, self-employed service providers. They receive no monthly stipend, no pension, no provident fund, and no paid leave. Their income depends entirely on piecemeal passenger transactions. While official carrying rates are fixed by railway divisions, intense competition and dwindling foot traffic have severely compromised their bargaining power.

Porters at prominent junctions report that daily interactions have collapsed from an average of five or six carrying jobs a decade ago to just one or two today—and frequently none at all. After waiting twelve hours on cold concrete platforms through rain or blistering heat, many return home with less than ₹200 to ₹300, barely enough to cover commuting and meals.

This drop in income coincides with escalating urban living costs, rendering the profession financially unsustainable. Historically, a porter’s badge (billa) was considered a prized asset—a stable, multi-generational livelihood that fathers passed down to sons or transferred within families upon retirement. Today, younger men who inherited these badges discover they hold an asset that yields debt rather than dignity. Many are forced into precarious moonlighting, working overnight as security guards, loading trucks at wholesale markets, or driving rented e-rickshaws during train turnaround hours.

Echoes of 2008 and the Call for Regularisation

This is not the first time the vulnerability of railway porters has surfaced as a major public issue. In 2008, during the tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav as Union Railway Minister, the Ministry launched a historic, one-time rehabilitation exercise. Acknowledging their informal service to the nation, the government absorbed tens of thousands of licensed porters directly into permanent Group D railway positions—primarily as track maintainers (gangmen), parcel handlers, and station cleaning staff.

For the families who benefited, the 2008 absorption represented a generational leap into financial security, complete with fixed pay scales, medical benefits, railway housing, and pensions.

Unions and advocacy groups, such as the Rashtriya Kuli Manch, have repeatedly urged the railway administration to implement a similar absorption drive. Their argument is grounded in social justice: as the state automates their traditional occupation, it bears an ethical duty to reabsorb the displaced workforce into the expanding railway system. Porters already know station layouts intimately, understand track safety protocols, and are accustomed to rigorous physical labor.

However, railway authorities have consistently expressed reservations about replicating the 2008 scheme. Current administrative priorities emphasize streamlining operational costs, outsourcing sanitation and parcel logistics to private contractors, and filling Group D vacancies through competitive, nationwide recruitment exams administered by the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs). Porters, many of whom lack formal academic credentials or exceed age thresholds, find themselves unable to compete in these general exams.

Pathways Toward an Equitable Transition

If traditional luggage-carrying has ceased to be commercially viable, leaving porters to fade out by attrition is neither humane nor necessary. Railway stations remain massive, labor-intensive environments where the institutional knowledge of porters could be repurposed:

• Official Station Assistance and Mobility Crews: Rather than outsourcing buggy services to third-party operators, porters could be formally trained and employed to manage station mobility fleets, operating electric carts and running dedicated helpdesks for passengers with special needs.
• Crowd and Luggage Logistics: With train lengths frequently reaching 24 coaches, porters could be integrated into official platform-management teams to assist with organized boarding, lost-and-found recovery, and escalator safety during peak festival rushes.
• Basic Social Security Coverage: Extending comprehensive coverage under the Ayushman Bharat health scheme, along with dedicated access to railway divisional hospitals and accidental disability insurance, would insulate aging porters from financial ruin when injury strikes.
• Reskilling and Exit Grants: For younger license holders, the state could offer targeted transition grants—such as subsidized micro-loans for clean-energy commercial vehicles or certified vocational training—enabling them to exit the railway yards on their own terms.

The modernised railway terminal, with its soaring glass facades, automated gates, and gleaming floors, reflects a country racing toward efficiency and comfort. But true infrastructure development is measured not merely by the speed of its trains or the shine of its tiles, but by how compassionately it handles the people whose manual labor paved the way. The railway porters who carried the nation’s baggage on their heads for over a century deserve more than being quietly rolled past into obscurity.

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