This article is based on my lived experience and several train journeys I undertook between Delhi to Gaya for conducting my PhD fieldwork in Bodh Gaya, India.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that if you want to know India, travel by Indian Railways. This remains just as true today as it was a hundred years ago. The mute, non-assertive and subaltern India lives here. This India is desperate in its deprivation. Or perhaps, they have been kept deprived over the years for fulfilling cheap labour demands for making India a Vishvaguru. This section of India comes from the margins of class and caste hierarchies. They are not part of the middle class which has its own burgeoned social and environmental agenda. They don’t put pressure on the state or central government for budgets or tax concessions. They don’t create a ruckus about the polluted Ganga or dying Yamuna. They never complain about the bad situation of Indian Railways or public transportation. They have not bothered with the increased price of petrol or gasoline. They travel by general coach in train-sitting for 17-30 hours on the floor or just stand during the whole journey.

During one of my fieldwork visits in November 2024, while returning from Bodh Gaya, my husband and I ended up in the general compartment of the Mahabodhi Express (Gaya to Delhi). We spent those 15 hours in great discomfort. But here, we were among the lucky few who got seats, unlike others who had to stand or sit on the floor in a coach so cramped that even an iron nail would struggle to find space. I was in pain to look at this India. This India finds no place in Indian trains, likewise its vision. For long-distance trains, there are more AC trains such as Rajdhani / AC coaches than general (unreserved) ones. Over the last two decades, the Indian Railways has added even more AC coaches to boost revenue. And, for this India, AC coaches are not even an option!

During that long journey, I needed to use the restroom once, but the thought of navigating through the dense crowd filled me with fear. But this fear had vanished when reality frightened me more. As I passed through, I accidentally stepped on a boy’s hand—no older than 16—who was on his way to Delhi in search of work. I kept apologizing to him, but he reassured me, saying, “koi ni didi, dard kya hain, kuch ni… Thodi der m theek ho jaiga (translated as: It’s okay sister, pain is nothing, nothing happened, it will be fine in some time). But the vicious spiral of poverty and its agony seems endless. Seeing these boys from Bihar, so young, heading to Delhi for work, stuck within this cycle of migration, was a stark reminder of the harsh realities they face.

Bihar and Uttar Pradesh top the chart of poverty and out-migration for employment. For example, according to the 2011 Census, Uttar Pradesh had approximately 12.32 million inter-state out-migrants, making it the state with the highest number of out-migration in India. While around 55% of male migrants from Bihar migrated for work or employment-related reasons which is more than double the national average. Also, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are the poorest states with a per capita income of 39.2% and 43.8% of the national average. This is the India I talked about at the opening of this article.

How do you expect a woman to travel in these trains? I have seen and experienced how impossible it could be to get a seat in an unreserved coach if you are a woman. And how easily, you can get molested, threatened and reduced to nothing in this overwhelming male dominating space. In another instance while travelling to Bodh Gaya (February 2025) during MahaKumbh Mela in the third AC. But even the reserved train was embedded with people, not any distinct from the general boggy. I encountered how women and girls were pushed into the boggy and even got so much molested. Unfortunately, this was not the first time I had encountered and experienced such incidents during my previous train journeys as well. But, again, this section of India does not complain about the harassment and deprivation that they experience every day. Lastly, I want to end this with this provoking thought whether this India concerned with India and its visions? I am not sure! But what I can say with certainty is… ‘they are just struggling for their roti, kapda and makan’. They are desperate for one seat on the train that they deserve. Hence, the India travelling on these trains deserves to be treated with dignity, not as cheap labour.

I wrote this while grappling with the moral and ethical dilemma that resurfaced within me by a Dalit woman in Bodh Gaya, “aapka likh rahi ho, aapne hi liye na… Aap likh dogi or chali jaoge” (translated as you are writing it for yourself, you will write and go away- without any change). But I am still writing as my responsibility or because I can do it!

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Ritika Rajput is a PhD student at the United Nations University, Tokyo. Her PhD research investigates historical and contemporary water management practices, focusing on how socio-economic and ecological activities shape the urban water metabolism of Bodh Gaya, India. Previously, she was a smart cities fellow with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (2021-2022) and an urban fellow at the Indian Institute for the Human Settlement, Bengaluru (2020-2021).