'Sahayaks' not 'coolies'

India said it will roll out wifi to hundreds of stations, install 17,000 hi-tech toilets on trains and professionalise its unskilled porters, or "coolies" under a drive to modernise its creaking railways. Station baggage carriers, known by the derogatory name "coolies", would be called as "sahayaks", which translates as "helpers" in Hindi "in line with the evolving image of Indian Railways", Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said as he presented the 2016-17 rail budget in parliament.