Yeh hai local meri jaan

Travelling in the local trains in Mumbai is no cakewalk. The scorching sun, the humid air, and the over packed compartments doesn’t make it any easier for the daily commuter. But what doesn’t help one ounce is the lack of compassion in fellow travellers.

Twenty-six-year-old Nishant Bangera noticed this indifference among commuters back in 2014. He decided that very instant that he must do something about it. 

“In 2014, I used to travel from Thane to Dadar and always saw people sitting comfortably by keeping their bags up on the racks. This leaves a large number of commuters hanging at the door with the weight of the bag and their body to manage. Not to mention that a majority of railway accidents happen as a result of commuters hanging out of the trains,” rues Nishant. As per the Government Railway Police (GRP) data released in 2017, at least eight people lose their lives per day.

If you want a glimpse of Mumbai’s daily life, there is no better place than the local trains — carrying roughly eight million commuters a day from one end of the city to the other. Be it the peak hours through the day or the quiet nights — the local trains in Mumbai never go empty. But with these over-crowded trains, there is always a threat to life. 

With Bag Pakad, Jagah Bana campaign, Nishant wants to share commuters’ insensitivity and lack of action by 

the authorities. 
The initiative attempts at requesting the commuters on the seats to hold their bags and let the shelves be free for those standing.

Nishant informs that the space on the rack, which is four sq ft, is luxury in a crowded train and can prevent accidents. But by travelling every day, Nishant has learnt something new about the habits of the commuters — lack of communication. “I find it difficult to strike a conversation or educate fellow travellers — they turn hostile, often resorting to aggressive methods,” he explains. 

Nishant’s expedition for a change hasn’t been all that easy. “Often when I am trying to convey the initiative’s message across, they don’t listen! It is their daily route and they don’t like to be schooled for anything. I tried several times, but when they are in a group, they overpower me — it is just me against 10 stubborn commuters,” he says.

So Nishant came back with a larger crowd. Armed with a batch of 25 volunteers, the group 

started distributing badges reminding people to hold their bags and make space (Bag Pakad, Jagah Bana).

To ensure that he left no stone unturned, Nishant even wrote a letter to the railway authorities suggesting methods by which they can make daily travel safer. But that was in 2015. And he hasn’t seen much change. “We suggested that announcements be made inside the train at originating stations requesting people sitting to hold their bags with themselves, giving space to the standing people. And provide more hooks for keeping bags as we see people carrying their own hooks,” he lists. 

However, with no response from the authorities back then, he resent the application in 2017 and now remains hopeful for some action. 

But even inaction from the authorities hasn’t deterred their motivation. Nishant and his volunteers are now approaching commuter groups to adopt this practice. “Through our contacts, we are trying to get in touch with different groups. There is one group from Dombivali to Churchgate that has taken up this initiative,” says an elated Nishant. 

Yogesh Kadam of the Dombivali group says, “We are a group of more than ten people. It’s been two weeks since I started distributing the badges, and people have responded well — even adopted the practice,” smiles Yogesh.

A usual day at a station

Apart from one-on-one awareness, Nishant and his team are working on making videos on safety and are planning to put up banners. 

“We are working on short animated videos explaining how to create space and will circulate them on WhatsApp. Also, we are trying to obtain permission from railways to put banners on originating stations like Kalyan, Dombivali, and Badlapur,” concludes Nishant.