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Sri Lanka Railways awaiting Public Service Commission approval to recruit women in all posts
View(s):The Department of Railways is awaiting Public Service Commission approval for its amended Scheme of Recruitment (SOR) which allows women to occupy all job positions that were previously confined to men, General Manager Ravindra Pathmapriya said.
Once it is passed, recruitment will take place as and when there are vacancies, he said. The SOR was amended to remove the restriction over women applying for certain posts.
Women were traditionally frozen out of all of the department’s top level skilled and executive positions, with only minor jobs granted, provided applications were received. However, pursuant to a Fundamental Rights petition filed by two women last year challenging a gazette notification for the recruitment of stationmasters permitting only men to apply, the Attorney General informed the Supreme Court that Cabinet had cleared the path to employ women in all positions of Sri Lanka Railways.
The petition was heard before a three-judge bench comprising Justices Janak de Silva, Priyantha Fernando and Achala Wengappuli. Senior State Counsel Nayanathara Balapatabendi represented the AG’s Department.
Representing the petitioners, Ayeshani Jayawardena and Suresh Vidusha, attorney-at-law Nuwan Bopage agreed to conclude proceedings as relief was granted. The case was ordered to be concluded.
Questions filed in 2019 by the Sunday Times under the Right to Information Act showed that out of 15,413 employees in the Railways department, only 1,202 were women. This was just 7 percent of the total workforce. And of this, 148 women were casual or substitute workers.
The majority were technician attendants or railway attendants, while the next highest category was railway clerk, followed by public management assistants, “office employees service”, and development officers. Across the department, there was only one female additional general manager (admin) who was from the Sri Lanka Administration Service and 17 engineers.
The trend did not improve in subsequent years.
The department has multiple chief engineers, deputy chief engineers, directors, assistant and deputy directors, engineers, superintendents, superintendents of engineer, survey and assistant superintendents, deputy general managers, engine drivers, guards inspectors, station superintendents, supervisory and chief supervisory managers, and so on.
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