The Indian Railway has recruited over 3,000 women candidates in technical categories in the last three years, Union minister Piyush Goyal informed Parliament Wednesday.
In a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Goyal said in the past few years, against notifications issued for various technical posts, a total of 2,79,60,224 applications were received and out of these, 46,76,928 (16.73 per cent) were from women.
"Around 3,650 women candidates have been given employment in the Indian Railways in technical categories in the last three years," he said.
Goyal also said the application fee collected from women candidates are refunded to those who appear in the examination. Also, an upper age limit incase of widows, divorced women and women judicially separated from their husbands, who are not remarried, is relaxed up to the age of 35 years.
In addition, for Level-1 categories, relaxed qualifying standards for the physical efficiency test (PET) for women candidates are applied.
"Provisions of separate rest rooms, cloak rooms, changing rooms and crèches have been made to ensure safe working conditions for women employees," he said.
