No obstacle too big for her

Shilpa P. | NT

For 40-year-old Rizwana Banu, the first and only licensed female luggage porter (Railway Sahayak) registered with railways in South India, neither her age nor her gender has come in the way.

Wearing the red shirt over her salwar, with license badge tied on her right arm, Rizwana is often seen at the Mysuru railway station, carrying two suitcases on her head and two bags hung on both arms. She climbs steps and crosses from platform to platform, with the same élan as 54 other male porters at the station.

An illiterate woman, Rizwana and her four children were left with no means of livelihood, when her husband Javeed Pasha, a licenced porter, died ten years ago. Rizwana had a tough time trying to convince the railway authorities to transfer her husband’s license in her name.

Since then she has been carrying the luggage, and got two of her daughters and one son married. And now she lives with a son in Usmania block of Mysuru.

She told News Trail, “Earlier, I used to feel tired and I used to take painkillers before I slept. But now I am used to it,” she said.

She added, “I start the day at 5am and end it by 5pm. While some people hesitate to give luggage to me, I convince them that I can do it. They expect us to climb steps, instead of taking elevators or lifts.”