LEFT OUT Indian Railways Has Only 463 Muslims Among 54,151 Gazetted Officers

• 36 Muslims among 4,498 Principal Heads of Departments 
• No Muslim among 40 chiefs of the Railway Board 
• Seven organisations have no Muslim gazetted official
• No Muslim official in the Indian Railway Finance Corporation 

Team Clarion

NEW DELHI – The total number of Muslim officials in the 166-year-old Indian Railways (IR) looks considerable with 1.7 lakh employees on the rolls of India’s largest commercial employer. However, it remains unimpressive and unsatisfactory when viewed in its totality, according to a new book, Muslims in India – Ground Realities Versus Fake Narratives – Achievements & Accomplishments.

In 1849, the Great Indian Peninsular Railway surfaced and four years later it began operating the first passenger train in India, from Bombay to Thane, covering a distance of 21 miles and running at 14 miles per hour – it was operated by three locomotives and had 13 carriages. The first rail line of the East Indian Railway was opened in August 1854 to run for 37 km from Howrah to Hugli. 

Eight railway companies were established between 1855 and 1860, including Eastern India Railway, Great India Peninsula Company (GIPR), Madras Railway, Bombay Baroda, and Central India Railway. The Southern region acquired its first 105-km railway line in 1856, from Royapuram to Arcot.  

Following the opening of the Calcutta-Delhi line in 1864 and the Allahabad-Jabalpur line in 1867, these lines were linked with the GIPR to create a 4,000-mile network spanning the width of India. The first locomotive was built in India in 1877. GIPR was the first company to become state-owned in 1900, and a year later the Railway Board was established to ensure its better governance – it included a government official, an English railway manager, and an agent of one of the company railways. In 1905, its powers were formalised by the government and it gained prominence.

A year later, the government had purchased all major lines and began leasing them back to private operators. Train movements were made smooth with a more centralised management system after both GIPR and East Indian Railways were nationalised in 1923. Railway finances were separated from the General Budget in 1924. In 1925, the railways began receiving its first individual dividend as the first Railway budget was presented that year and electric locomotives were introduced reflecting the growing importance of the railway network in the country’s development. Following Independence in August 1947, different railway systems were nationalised in 1951 following the amalgamation of 42 different railway companies operating in the country, spanning a total of 34,000 miles. 

That year, the Railways established its zones which were later sub-divided into divisions. Diesel locomotives began being manufactured in India in 1954, and two years later came the first rail coaches from a factory in Madras, along with the first air-conditioned train that plied between Howrah and New Delhi. A decade later came the first containerised freight rail transport between Bombay and Ahmedabad.  The number of routes increased steadily through the rest of the 19^th century and underwent electrification in the early 20^th century. 

The number of zones in IR increased from six to eight in 1951, nine in 1966, and 16 in 2003 when India celebrated the 150^th anniversary of its first train journey. The Railways now has 70 divisions and 19 zones, with each division headed by a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM). The fourth largest national railway system in the world now operates over 13000 trains and 8,000-plus freight trains daily on tracks whose length spans 67,368 km, transporting more than 11 billion passengers and 1.416 billion tons of freight annually. IR provides lifetime livelihood to close to 2.5 percent of Indian families and it has one million pensioners.  

As of March 2023, the IR had a rolling stock of 318,196 freight wagons and 84,863 passenger coaches. Also, it had 10,238 electric and 4,543 diesel locomotives. The number of its total employees stood by July 2023 at 1,218,221, including both gazetted and non-gazetted employees. The number of temporarily engaged personnel stood at 7,870 in 2023-24 About 2.74 lakh posts in the world’s ninth-largest employer are currently lying vacant with more than 1.7 lakh of them in the safety category alone. The UPA government’s Minister for Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav, presenting the Railways Budget for 2008-09, had remarked that the IR has only about two percent Muslims on its payroll, with only 30,000 of 140,000 railways employees being Muslims. In 2013, officials disclosed that 64,000 were Muslim employees out of 14 lakh employees in the Railways.  

That year, Mirza Salma Baig became India’s first Gate Woman to oversee a railway crossing at one of the busiest intersections near Lucknow. In 2016, it was revealed that the community has a representation of only 4.5 percent in Indian Railways with 98.7 percent of them positioned at lower levels. That year, Muslims had the lowest share of working people – about 33 percent – among all religious communities in India, lower than the nationwide average work participation.

Post-Independence, the all-powerful Railway Board had seen 40 chiefs since April 1951 – and seven since formation – but none from the Muslim community. Its debut chief served for a period of 42 months – the highest tenure in its history. Currently, the board has 40 members including the GMs – it, however, has no Muslim on board. In August 2024, a Dalit became the first to head the organisation. The Railway Board has all the powers and authorities to approve the policies and projects of Indian Railways. It has a monopoly over the provision of rail services in India and oversees the whole infrastructure. All the officers of the Railway Board today are members of the Indian Railway Personnel Services, a Class ‘A’ civil service. 

Regarded as the foundation and lifeblood of the economy, the IR’s Mechanical Engineering Department had the most employees, nearly 283,600, at the end of the 2023 financial year. This department is separate from the Engineering Department which itself has around 281,200 employees across the country. In Jun 2023, officials disclosed that about 2.74 lakh posts in the IR were lying vacant – more than 1.7 lakh in the safety category alone. As of 2024, there are 17 operational zones and a new zone has been proposed, the South Coast Railway. There are 73 operating divisions, each headed by a DRM who is responsible for the operation and maintenance of their respective divisions.

After the government took over the construction of railways, the consulting engineers were designated as Government Inspectors. In 1883, their position was statutorily recognised. Later, the Railway Inspectorate was placed under the Railway Board. The separation of the Railway Inspectorate from the Railway Board was endorsed in 1940 and it was placed under the administrative control of the Department of Posts and Air in May 1941 and continuously thereafter under whichever ministry held the portfolio of Civil Aviation. 

The Railway Inspectorate was re-designated as the Commission of Railway Safety in November 1961. Presently, there are nine Commissioners of Railway Safety (CRS), each one exercising jurisdiction over one or more of the 19 Zonal Railways. In addition, Metro Railway (Kolkata), DMRC (Delhi), MRTS (Chennai), and Konkan Railway also fall under their jurisdiction. Presently, out of 35 officers of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS), one is a Muslim – Ahmad Nadeem Siddiqui, Deputy Commissioner of Railway Safety (Mechanical).

The surging domestic economy, booming infrastructure construction, and growing international trade led to the conception of the Dedicated Freight Corridor. After years of deliberations, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) was set up in October 2006 to undertake planning and development, mobilisation of financial resources, construction, operation and maintenance, and business development of the dedicated freight corridors. Today, no Muslim is among its senior management team of 39 while there are eight Muslims among the 151 mid-level officers.

The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), a unique combination enabling complex Railway IT systems in core areas and developing/maintaining software for the IR’s key functional areas, has one Muslim among its 49 officials – SAM Naqvi, General Manager for EPS & MMIS. Also, the Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), set up in December 1986 as the dedicated financing arm of the IR for mobilising funds from domestic as well as overseas capital markets, has zero Muslim presence. None is a Muslim among its four top officials.

Braithwaite & Co was registered and incorporated in December 1976 as a fully owned Government of India Undertaking and came in August 2010 under the administrative control of the Ministry of Railways from the Ministry of Heavy Industries. Today, its 23 top officials include a Muslim – Mohammed Asad Alam, Chairman and Managing Director. 

The Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) which has a legacy spanning over two and a half decades of fast-tracking the execution of Railway projects, has an eight-member Board with no Muslim included. It has 515 employees with no Muslim presence as its senior employees. The Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) has 95 Executive Directors and GMs but none is a Muslim.  

The Indian Railway Construction International Limited (IRCON), an engineering and construction corporation specialising in transport infrastructure, has been operating since 1976 under the Indian Railways as a wholly owned entity. Its name was changed to Indian Railway International Limited in October 1995 with about 1,260 employees on its still as of May 2024. Only one is a Muslim among its 34 officials – Masood Ahmed, Chief General Manager (HW) RailTel, an ICT provider and one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in the country owning a Pan-India optic fibre network since September 2000, has 16 officials in its management team with no Muslim on the board. Presently, the RailTel network covers 6,108+ railway stations across India and citywide access across the country of 21,000+ km.

Indian Railways staff members are classified into gazetted (Groups A and B) and non-gazetted (Groups C and D) employees. Gazetted employees carry out executive/managerial/officer-level tasks. Currently, the number of personnel (Groups A & B) constitutes 1.2 percent of the total strength, while Groups C & D account for 92.6 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively. The Union Ministry of Railways disclosed a shortage of 3,223 gazetted officers in various sectors. According to the figures up to April, South Eastern Railway has a requirement of 779 officers and the existing number standing at 581 The Central Organisation for Railway Electrification requires 151 people while the current number is 47. There are 3,223 vacancies in more than 40 posts. Eastern Central Railway has the highest number of vacancies at 272. 

To read and obtain more data, visit 

Muslims in India: Achievements & Accomplishments 1947-2024: Mannan, Mohammed Abdul: 9798343270259: Amazon.com: Books

Muslims in India 1947-2024 eBook : Abdul Mannan, Mohammed