According to one news article, the number of porters at the Jalandhar railway station dipped from 160 a decade earlier to 29 in 2015: and of them not everyone comes to work. The Railways is aware of the problem but do not bear any accountability as porters do not draw salary from it. However, in 2016, the Indian Railways announced a list of measures to improve the condition of porters and to modernise the railway system. Besides a number of measures to expand and modernise the system, a series of measures concerning porters was mentioned. These included changing their role nomenclature to ‘sahayak’, meaning helper, new uniforms, training them in soft skills and increasing the number of trolleys for them to carry luggage. The measures that were claimed to improve the condition of porters were somehow misplaced, the result of a top-down approach. Definitely, the term ‘coolie’ is colonial and demeaning, but Indians have not looked at them in this manner or the porters themselves never thought of their work as such. Indeed, the union of porters was one of the strongest unions. Moreover, it is not the term but the idea of making porters learn soft skills that is demeaning. Such an idea has an underlying assumption that the porters are rough and impolite. This assumption originates from class arrogance. Similarly, the new uniform bore the logos of the companies that sponsored it. The crimson red uniform has been used by porters for more than a century now. And this was one of the two things that came through the Railways; otherwise porters are not considered Railway employees, and they are only contracted by the Railways to provide the services. So, they have been moving advertisements of the link. But now, the sense of their affiliation with the Railways that came through the uniform has been tarnished. The idea of increasing the number of trolleys is a welcome step but only if it gets to be used by porters as there is not enough work for them. Instead of taking stock of the missing porters, the given measures are centred on the customers of the Railways. What the porters had demanded were retirement benefits, pension and job opportunities for their wards. However, ad hoc welfare measures have been extended to them. I sometimes wonder: what would happen to them and their families? What are they doing now? Whether they are employed somewhere else or are unable to secure work, they would be cursing technology and the apathy of the Railways. According to one news article, the number of porters at the Jalandhar railway station dipped from 160 a decade earlier to 29 in 2015: and of them not everyone