31 years on, Asia's first woman loco pilot is unstoppable

Harbouring a passion for trains and now sharing her knowledge with aspiring motormen training under her, Surekha Yadav remembers her humble beginnings and her inspiring, one-of-a-kind career path.

Surekha Yadav has been breaking the glass ceiling in the Indian Railways since 1989. From being the first motor woman in Asia and the first female loco pilot in the Indian Railways, she has come a long way. Harbouring a passion for trains and now sharing her knowledge with aspiring motormen training under her, she remembers her humble beginnings and her inspiring, one-of-a-kind career path.

Reminiscing the time when she had just graduated with a diploma in electrical engineering and was appointed as an assistant loco pilot, Yadav says that it was the golden day of her life. It was her determination and the kind of encouragement she received from her senior colleagues that helped her make a career out of her passion.

Even Yadav had her fair share of challenges while achieving her goal, but she did not let anyone realise it and get the best of her. "I didn’t allow anyone to think just because I’m a woman, I was facing problems in my job. I tried my level best to do my job well and also other women in the profession are also doing a good job." But she agrees that there are difficulties in every job. "Even our job is difficult as we work in line and pull off 16 hour shifts."

But these challenges never stopped her from achieving her goals. "No woman had entered this field till 1989. I thought, that even as no woman has taken up such as profession, I will try to do my best in this field. Now that I have completed 31 years of my service in Indian Railways, I know that I am successful."

Her family was concerned at the beginning of her career for her safety, even though they supported her career choice. "I had promised my family if I did not feel safe at work, I’ll quit. But till date, I feel safe and everything is going well."    

Yadav says that day she was appointed as the first motorwoman in the Indian Railways and it was her career-defining moment, but another moment where she led an all-women crew on a Deccan Express was the best one. "It was March 8, 2018, and I was proud to have worked the Deccan Queen from CSMT Mumbai to Pune, with an all-woman crew. Right from the assistant loco pilot, loco pilot to the ticket checkers to the RPF staff, all of them were women and it was a golden day in the history of Indian railways," she said.

Now as the first female senior instructor for motormen in the Indian Railways, Yadav has proved that she is unstoppable. "Motormen never faced a woman instructor till I was appointed to the position. Now the students are happy to be trained under me and they don’t feel anything unusual having a woman as their instructor. And I’m happy to impart my experiences on field to the students for them to develop their skills."

To the women who have been inspired by Yadav’s career path, she says, "Where there is a will there is a way. If you have set your mind on entering a profession, go ahead and your efforts will never go in vain."

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