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INDIAN WOMEN COOLIES

For more than 130 years, in Bhavnagar railway station (Gujarat), the arduous task of carrying the passengers luggage has been managed exclusively by local indian women.
It was back in 1880 when the Maharaja of Bhavnagar, Krishna Pratapsinhji, decided in a revolutionary act at that time, to employ three women porters at the station. The tradition has continued since then by their daughters and daughters-in-law.
Despite the hard work and to earn just 1 dollar a day, they feel proud valuing that work without being able to imagine another destination than theirs at the train station. Most of them have already 50 years old. But times are changing and the authorities are imposing new rules by recruiting only men alleging the hardness of work, which continues to be less hard than other tasks such as for example agriculture in the fields.

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Coolies-04.jpg
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SARA JANINI
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For more than 130 years, in Bhavnagar railway station (Gujarat), the arduous task of carrying the passengers luggage has been managed exclusively by local indian women.<br /> It was back in 1880 when the Maharaja of Bhavnagar, Krishna Pratapsinhji, decided in a revolutionary act at that time, to employ three women porters at the station. The tradition has continued since then by their daughters and daughters-in-law.<br /> Despite the hard work and to earn just 1 dollar a day, they feel proud valuing that work without being able to imagine another destination than theirs at the train station. Most of them have already 50 years old. But times are changing and the authorities are imposing new rules by recruiting only men alleging the hardness of work, which continues to be less hard than other tasks such as for example agriculture in the fields.
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