“28 people, including 14 women,”

The opening sentence of the headline news item Train mows down 28 pilgrims trapped on track in Bihar in The Hindu of August 20, 2013 contains the title phrase (including the commas) of this post.

OK, Bihar locates the place of accident on a zoom-out (Dhamara Ghat, mentioned in the body of the dispatch, is the station). “Pilgrims” in the heading may convey the message that the victims may not have been locals. Yes, 28 people were mowed down by a train, and that is news which deserves the headline status, though such railway accidents are repeated dispiritingly often.

But, is the fact that out of the 28 victims 14 were women all that significant, particularly, to appear in the opening line? I am not sure. Later on we read that 10 men and four children also died, validating the headcount.

Yes, women are vulnerable in our society and one has to hang his head in shame on this, and I do. But, on rail tracks, when mowed by a “speeding train” (when the station is not a scheduled stop for the train), when there is “no other road”, when two stationary trains are occupying the other available (for the trains as well as pedestrians) tracks, when the driver of the train has applied emergency brakes, when 10 men and four children have also been “mowed down”, why single out “women” in the opening line?

I do not understand. Perhaps someone can educate me on this.

Raghuram Ekambaram