Several media houses and news portals, including Dainik Jagran, Zee News, and more, have claimed recently that the Indian Railways has updated its regulations and now charges the full amount for the tickets of children below 5 years. The reports have gone viral on social media platforms.
In its report, Zee News said that the Indian Railways has updated ticket booking rules on the IRCTC website, and as per new regulations, travellers with kids below the age of 5 have to pay full fare. It further said they have checked and confirmed the same on the IRCTC website.
A similar report was published on August 15 in Hindi daily Dainik Jagran where the title of the report had a “shock value.” The report called the “updated regulations” a shock for common travellers. It mentioned a story of a family who wanted to travel from Rajkot to Somnath and carried on to claim that the regulations have been changed recently.
OpIndia’s investigation
OpIndia checked and verified from the IRCTC website that it is a fact that if you want to book a separate berth for a child under the age of 5, you have to pay full charges.
We used the same origin and destination to search for tickets as mentioned in the Dainik Jagran report. IRCTC let us book the ticket, and the claim so far seems to be true.
However, there is a catch. There are two options to book a ticket for the infant. If you look closely, there are two options on the page where you fill in details of the passengers. The first option is “With berth,” which was chosen in the previous screenshot. The second option is “add passenger without a berth,” which can be seen here.
When you click on the option to list the passenger without a berth, the website clearly says, “Ticket is not to be issued” that means though the passenger will be listed as a traveller, a berth will not be issued separately for the child and no additional charges will be levied by the Indian Railways.
In the next step, we noticed that though we had added two names, only one ticket was issued for a person of age one as an additional berth was refused by us at the time of filling the details.
Indian Railways 2020 circular clarified the pricing
In 2020, Indian Railways issued a circular in which it clarified the pricing for children under the age of 5, from the ages 5 to 14, and so on.
The circular clearly mentioned that in case a berth has been sought for a child under the age of 5, full fare will be charged. Only Divyang children will get concessions as per the norms. Similarly, in the case of children above the age of 5 and below the age of 14, full fare will be charged. If no berth is sought, half of the fare will be charged.
Verdict: The reports that Indian Railways recently changed regulations and is now charging full fare for children below 5 are false and misleading.
