NEW DELHI – A new Indian Railways offer to pamper passengers with massageson its trains has met with ridicule on social media and complaints from oneMP that it contravened “Indian culture”.
Due to start later this month, passengers on 39 trains departing fromcentral India will be offered three classes of head-and-foot massagestarting at 100 rupees ($1.50).
The “gold” service will see on-board masseurs use any “non-sticky or oliveoil”, “diamond” customers will offer essential oils while the “platinum”offering, at 300 rupees, will be carried out with cream.
Indian Railways, which announced the project on the weekend, carries 25million passengers every day and said it wants the initiative to generateadditional income and offer comfort to passengers on long journeys.
But Shankar Lalwani from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalistBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it was inappropriate to have strangersgiving and receiving massages in the presence of women.
Women’s groups, Lalwani told AFP, “said it was improper to have suchservices in public places. I think it’s against the Indian culture”.
Lalwani, a newly elected MP from the central city of Indore, said he wrotea letter to Indian Railways calling for the initiative to be scrapped.
Many social media users were also unimpressed, saying the state-ownedcompany’s focus should be elsewhere.
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“Let railways focus on providing safe, reliable, fast transport instead ofsuch pathetic, stupid, third rated ideas!,” one Twitter user said.
“Kindly focus on toilet cleaning. Massage is not a necessary issue buttoilet is during Journey,” wrote another.
Built by India’s former British colonial rulers, the railway system is oneof the world´s largest and is still the main means of long-distance travelin the huge country.
It operates more than 12,000 trains but suffers from underfunding andcreaking infrastructure that has resulted in chronic safety and hygieneproblems.
The government’s own corruption watchdog in 2017 labelled Indian Railwaysfood “unfit for human consumption”, often containing recycled or expiredfood.
Last year, public confidence took another blow when a rail caterer wasfilmed making tea from toilet water. -APP/AFP
