Women block rail tracks as quota protests continue in India

Jun 3, 2008, 9:30 GMT

New Delhi - Thousands of women from India's ethnic Gujjar community blocked rail tracks in north-western Rajasthan state on Tuesday, leading to the cancellation of more than 50 trains, officials and news reports said.

The Gujjars have been blocking road and rail traffic across Rajasthan since May 23 to exert pressure on the state government to accept their demand to be classified as a scheduled tribe to qualify for government jobs and quotas in schools.

The 50 million Gujjars, who largely make a living from raising livestock and selling dairy products, want to be downgraded in official social status in order to benefit from India's affirmative action policy.

At least 40 people, including two policemen, have been killed, mostly in police firings on demonstrators, since the protests began.

On Tuesday, Gujjar women blocked the Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Agra rail routes, leaving almost 40,000 passengers stranded, NDTV television channel reported.

More than 50 trains on these routes have been cancelled and the stand-off could continue for the next 24 hours, the police said.

Railway officials said they hoped to resume services by Wednesday. All trains on the Delhi-Ahmedabad route via Jaipur - the main route connecting Rajasthan and Gujarat states with the rest of northern India - had been cancelled.

The Indian railways have suffered losses worth millions of rupees due to the agitation, a spokesman for the railways said. All passengers who made reservations earlier were being refunded their money. Arrangements were being made to carry passengers stranded on rail tracks in buses.

'We have a huge force squatting on the tracks and they have put their women in front, nobody wants to use force against them as this may complicate and aggravate the situation,' Jayant Singh, a railway official based in Jaipur was quoted as saying.

The Gujjars, meanwhile, began finally cremating their dead on Tuesday at the locations where they were killed in police firings on May 24 and 25.

The post-mortem of the bodies was done on Monday after the Gujjars, who earlier held on to the bodies and refused to allow the process, relented.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje once again appealed to the Gujjars to sit down for talks. The Gujjar leaders have so far refused to do so saying they would call off the protests only after their demand was met.