The UNESCO-recognised Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) now has a woman Travelling Ticket Examiner for the first time in its 145-year history. The post filled is by Sarita Yolmo who is a veteran of the Northeast Frontier Railway, and conducted the iconic New Jalpaiguri–Darjeeling run on February 5. This role had remained exclusively male-dominated since the line began operations in 1881.
Sarita joined the railways in 1991 in a printing press at Kurseong, shifted departments when the press shut down, worked enquiries, station checking and announcements, and after three decades of institutional endurance, stepped into a heritage service that tourists photograph. She is originally from the Darjeeling hills, and until now had never been assigned to the heritage line that runs through her own landscape. The new posting means full-day mountain duty, overnight halts, and the physical and logistical demands of an eight-hour climb through curves, loops, and unpredictable hill weather.
Indian Railways has steadily expanded women’s presence in operational roles in recent years, including women locomotive pilots, guards and station masters. However, heritage and hill services have historically remained male-dominated, largely because of their demanding terrain, long duty cycles and legacy staffing patterns. Sarita Yolmo’s posting is the first such appointment on the toy train since the line began operations in 1881.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is more than transport. The narrow-gauge line climbs through tea estates, bazaars and villages, looping and zigzagging up to the hill town often called the “Queen of the Hills”. In 1999, the line was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the Mountain Railways of India.
Once a role is performed by a woman, the question of whether a woman can do it disappears. Institutions change not when barriers fall dramatically, but when they become administratively irrelevant. In a small hill station built on colonial leisure, tea and cinematic longing, the most contemporary image today is a woman in uniform, moving through a heritage coach, checking tickets while the steam curls past the windows.
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