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Poonam Madan Sarmah

CARRYING an average 13 million passengers in 8,250 passenger-trains daily, the Indian Railways is one of the world's largest transporters of passenger traffic. But despite such phenomenal dependence by the travelling public on this critical service, its service standards are dismal.

This article takes a look at the sub-standard services provided to consumers against the backdrop of subsidisation and inefficient management of public expenditure by service providers such as the Railways.

It goes on to emphasise on the need for accountability to consumers and taxpayers and wonders how long consumer-friendly efficient services will continue to be a tall order, though the Railway Minister had declared 2003-04 as the "Customer Satisfaction Year" (CAG Audit Report No.9A of 2002 — "Passenger Amenities on Indian Railways").

The report acknowledges provision of passenger amenities is an important objective of the Indian Railways both as a business ethic and a social obligation. It evaluates the performance of services provided in terms of complaints against catering services.

While under-reporting is certain, analysis reveals that there are more complaints against departmental catering units than against contractor-operated units and that the gap is widening.

Complaints against departmental catering units rose by 58 per cent from 1999-2000 to 2000-2001. The report admits: "These statistics may not necessarily depict the true picture and the ground realities could be more serious." The ground reality is that travellers face situations of unreliable supply of water, poor hygiene in on-board catering, withholding of intended food/linen items, poorly maintained lavatories and so on. At the worst of the scale are the dirty to outright filthy blankets and beddings provided in the premium trains.

So, where do the allocated funds for their maintenance disappear? Thus far, only the "elite" Rajdhanis have been referred to. The conditions of hygiene, basic amenities and security prevalent in the ordinary trains are worse. Other issues include an ingrained hawker-attendant nexus in non-elitist trains with implications for safety (hawkers cooking on stoves inside moving trains), security (thefts and pilferage) and compounding the burden on overstretched resources (water and lavatory) apart from nuisance and littering.

Attendants seem to vanish when the hawkers begin their business, particularly while travelling east. Sub-standard service delivery in train schedules is also well established. And there is the subtle yet visible corruption as ticketless travellers pay bribes to railway staff on moving trains and the equilibrium attained is a satisfying point on their respective utility curves.

Apart from declaring 2003-04 a "Customer Satisfaction Year", the Railway Minister also said in his Budget speech that measures relating to safety, security, punctuality and cleanliness will be taken up. But this is easier said than done, as the problems are deep-rooted.

Indian Railways actually has a Citizens' Charter in place, which pledges to ensure adequate passenger amenities. Yet Report 9A makes a highly disturbing statement: "Even after a decade, the Railways has not been able to fulfil the commitment made to the Estimates Committee to eliminate deficiencies in basic amenities by 1990-91."

In spite of the emerging service economy mindset that lays emphasis on management of customer expectations, the Indian Railways has been "successful" in lowering expectations to the bare minimum. And within the realm of "public services", acceptance and apathy regarding poor standards have come to be the norm rather than the exception.

Senior officials blame political instability and coalition governments that have allowed only a nominal increase in Class II fares for the past several years. Besides cross-subsidy from freight to passenger traffic, the inherent imbalance in fares for different classes of passenger travel as well as perceived subsidisation of short distance travel by long distance travellers are much touted issues. Even so, should subsidised travel necessarily imply the prevailing service standards?

Internationally, in many developed countries, high state subsidies levels continue to be justified on the grounds that rail transport confers social and environmental benefits.

At the same time, the declining trend in passenger traffic continued this fiscal, and passenger earnings may fall short of the Budget target of Rs 13,450 crore by Rs 720 crore.

In his budget speech this year, the Railway Minister mentioned competition from airlines to Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains. Over the last couple of years, patronage of "elite trains" has come down. A plausible reason for the threat from air travel is that, the services provided are not commensurate with premium prices charged in such trains.

World Bank data reveals that despite staff reductions over the last decade, the labour productivity of the Indian Railways is approximately half that of its counterpart in China, and a quarter that in South Africa.

Unclear and fragmented responsibilities for different aspects of supply and management of services and infrastructure hampers efficiency by obscuring accountability as well as the pressure to perform.

The deteriorating efficiency of the Railways is reflected by the rising operating ratio (the ratio of total working expenses to gross traffic receipts). From a revised figure of 92.5 per cent in 2002-03, the Railway Budget pegged the ratio at 94.1 per cent for 2003-04.

The need for more efficient operations demands cost effective use of resources, and this calls for restructuring including privatisation of non-core activities and, perhaps, franchising passenger services.

A Status Paper (2002) by the Indian Railways mentions that staff costs account for around 50 per cent of the gross traffic receipts. The lifestyles of officers pose doubts of mismanagement of public money.

Civil society has the right to raise questions about funds that pay for perks, such as domestic deployment of official staff for officers (the Raj legacy continues with bungalow peons), and freebies like railway passes for employees.

These represent the hidden and/or untaxed perks financed from taxpayers' money. If subsidisation for social welfare is posed as a financial problem, then staff costs too need to be made transparent before a realistic assessment can be undertaken.

It is time the Railways is made answerable to civil society about funds allocated and spent on passenger traffic services. This calls for demystifying accounts and opening them to public scrutiny and for professional management that is accountable to consumers and taxpayers at large.

From the consumer perspective, therefore, issues awaiting crackdown range from substandard service delivery to inefficiency and corruption. Problems of resources, pricing, governance as well as monopoly behaviour in servicing need to be addressed.

The Railways should relinquish its bureaucratic ineptitude and invite non-government professionals and non-political citizens into the advisory board if it is serious about becoming more efficient and customer-focussed. Benchmarking of operational efficiency and service standards should be logical fallouts.

As discussed in a recent World Bank report on transport infrastructure, there is a need for transport users and stakeholders to evolve as pressure groups for change.

Unless questions are raised, accountability will not be forthcoming and this critical service will continue to be a fiefdom of the babus that manage it and the employees that operate it. Rent-seeking behaviour will continue to thrive as it typically does under the guise of "public service" provision.

(The author is Head of Research, Genesis PR. The views are personal.)

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