train driver

Kumkum Dongre from Madhya Pradesh turned her childhood fascination for trains into her lifelong dream and became one of India's first female locopilots, commanding the country's first all-woman crew on a goods' train.

"Just as we crossed Diva (in Thane), I saw that a person was lying between two tracks. I stopped the train and informed the guard, M D Aalam."

Leaping into action, he immediately stopped the train. Taking complete charge, alongside his co-staffers, he detached the parcel van from the other coaches first and then from the engine.

Surekha, now 51, became India’s first female passenger train driver in 1988. The Indian Railways, a traditionally male-dominated industry, had finally opened its doors to women.