When the first wave of Covid 19 hit India and lockdown was clamped to prevent the spread of the virus, the country witnessed a humanitarian crisis when stranded migrant workers started walking back to their villages in thousands. It was a huge challenge before the government to facilitate the migrants’ journey back home by arranging for transport.

During such difficult times, Ms. Suhani Mishra, an Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer posted as Senior Divisional Operations Manager in Mumbai Central Western Railways, played a vital role in running 720 Shramik (labour) trains during the initial phase of lockdown. Her dedication and the way she carried out the operation on war footing was recently rewarded, as she was conferred the prestigious National Award for Outstanding Service 2021 by Ministry of Railways, Government of India.

PLANNING THE BIGGEST EVACUATION OF LABOURS

Ms. Suhani Mishra was in charge of both suburban and urban railways and had to manage the evacuation process of lakhs of labourers at a time when Covid cases were increasing at a very high rate. Being extra cautious about the whole situation, she started acting up fast and collected data of all the people who wanted to travel to their native places at a very early stage.

She played a vital role in the process of issuance of automated train notifications through basic Microsoft tools. This helped in promptly generating a large number of notifications and reducing the turnaround time after receiving the demand for a train from the state government. As a result, WR Headquarter notified the maximum number of Shramik trains (Total 1234) in the country. This resulted in quick turnaround time in notifying trains which helped sister agencies and departments to provide tickets, meals, and quarantine facilities for migrants.

Additionally, the rake management was planned meticulously to ensure quick turnaround of trains taking BPC stipulations into account. The coordination with other Divisions, foreign railways and the Railway Board was maintained by her throughout this period to ensure optimum rake utilization for maximizing evacuation of shramiks.

While speaking to Indian Masterminds, she said, “The situation was very tough as we had to plan multiple things to run Shramik Trains every day and the average of departing trains was increasing day by day. It came to a point that I was locked inside my room alone and even my food was being dropped by my driver. I could only sleep for three hours in a day and the rest of the time I used to plan the operation of hundreds of trains while following the Covid protocols.”

PROVIDING SUPPLIES TO DISTRESSED

In order to overcome the obstacles of transporting essential commodities through the road network, she reached out to producers and manufacturers of essential commodities and offered railway parcel services. As a result, on Wester Railways, a total of 312 dedicated Covid Parcel special trains (March -1, April – 115, May-143, June – 53) were run from the date of imposition of nationwide lockdown till June 30, 2020.

Ms. Mishra went beyond the call of duty during adversity to answer queries from distressed migrants and, also, coordinated with the appropriate agencies to provide them relief through a platform called SETU. With the help of the department, she helped a three-and-a-half-year-old autistic child with camel milk and, also, assisted a 70-year-old lady named Leelavati after her sad life story came to light.

At the same time, she had also taken utmost care of the workforce under her control for prevention of spread of infection and all covid protocol was ensured for safety of staff and family. Her self-motivated discharge of duties and exceptional sense of responsibility was recognized by the Government of India and she was conferred the National Award for Outstanding Service 2021.