Mumbai: 12-year-old’s little step is a giant leap for railways

A 12-year-old girl's observation on signage on local trains has led to change in the city's lifeline. During one of her journeys, Humairah G Moriwala, a Std VIII student from Andheri, noticed that the ‘II' written in Roman numerals outside second class compartments was causing inconvenience to uneducated commuters.

She enquired with her father, who discussed it with a passengers' association member, and now both the Central and Western Railway have accepted the suggestion to include the signage in Marathi, English and Hindi as well.

Humairah G Moriwala, a Std VIII student

Humairah told mid-day, "I noticed that on the first class compartment ‘I' is written in Roman digits as well as in English, Marathi and Hindi. But unfortunately, the same was not the case for second class compartments. I asked my father about it. He discussed the issue with his friend who is a passenger committee member."

‘Only first-class had signage in three languages'

Humairah, a student of Hansraj Morarji Public School in Andheri West, added, "My request to the railways was to see if second class could be written in all three languages below the roman signage in the general interest of commuters."

The gate of a first-class coach of a local train with the signage in all three languages whereas the second-class coach only sports ‘II'. File pic

Her father G H Moriwala said, "Once when she was travelling from Malad to Andheri with our relatives from the village, she saw how they were getting confused due to presence of only Roman letterings on second-class coaches while first class compartments had the signage in all languages. When she asked me why only the first-class compartments had the signage in three languages, it prompted me to talk to Mansoor Umer Darveshji."

Darvesh, a senior citizen passenger committee member from Jogeshwari and an activist, said, "It was a valid suggestion and there has been a need on Mumbai suburban local trains to standardise signage. Hence, I took up the matter with the divisional railway manager's office on behalf of Humairah and started correspondence. The suggestion has been accepted by both Western Railway and Central Railway."

Humairah G Moriwala

Work is on

Railway officials said the suggestion has been taken into consideration and action is being taken in developing three-language signage for second class EMU passenger compartments at the Mahalaxmi workshop. They added that the work is being carried out in a scheduled manner on the entire fleet of trains.

Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, Western Railway, confirmed the development and said, "We are always open to positive suggestions from the general public for overall improvement of the system." Central Railway chief PRO Shivaji Sutar too said that they are working on it in a time-bound manner.