Indigo fiasco: How flying is still a nightmare for specially abled people in India

Anxiety, dread, humiliation and just an overall sense of helplessness. For many people with disabilities or those with special needs, these feelings are part of routine air travel, from getting to the airport gate to getting on and off the plane. The recent incident of IndiGo barring a specially abled child from boarding a flight at the Ranchi airport as he was in “a state of panic” is just one more example of how flying in the country is a nightmare and another reason for a policy to be brought into place. For those who don’t know, IndiGo airlines barred an adolescent with special needs from boarding a plane along with his parents at the Ranchi airport on Saturday. The incident came to light after a fellow flyer, Manisha Gupta, shared an account of the incident on social media.

In her post, she wrote, “The Indigo staff announced that the child would not be allowed to take the flight. That he was a risk to other passengers. That he would have to become ’normal’, before he could be travel-worthy. And the staff then went on to state something on lines of ‘behaviours such as this, and that of drunk passengers, deems them unfit to travel.” The airline is now facing heat from Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia, who has initiated an inquiry into the incident and said that ‘there was zero tolerance towards such behaviour’.

There is zero tolerance towards such behaviour. No human being should have to go through this! Investigating the matter by myself, post which appropriate action will be taken. https://t.co/GJkeQcQ9iW

— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) May 9, 2022

This isn’t a lone incident of airline or airport authorities being insensitive to specially abled people or those with special needs. Here’s a look at prior incidents, which reinforces the need for the government to dos and don’ts for both airlines and airport operators in regards to specially abled flyers. When airport officials ask to remove prosthetic limbs Standing in queue for security checks is harrowing enough, but it becomes nightmarish and highly humiliating when Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel ask disabled people to remove their prosthetic limbs. Case in point: Dancer Sudha Chandran’s ordeal of 2021. The professional dancer-turned actor had taken to social media late last year and recounted her torment and requested Prime Minister Modi to look into the issue. “Every time that I go on my professional visits, each time, am stopped at the airport and when I request them at the security, to the CISF officers that please do an ETD (Explosive Trace Detector) for my artificial limb, they still want me to remove my artificial limb and show it to them. Is this humanly possible, Modi ji? Is this what our country is talking about? Is this the respect that a woman gives to another woman in our society? It is my humble request to you Modi ji that please give senior citizens a card that says they are senior citizens.”

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Sharing the video, she wrote on Instagram, “Totally hurt ….each time going thru this grill is very very hurting….hope my message reaches te state Nd central govt authorities….and expecting a prompt action.” Sudha Chandran is not the only one to suffer this mortifying situation. Suranjana Ghosh, a media professional, had also made headlines back in 2013, saying that being asked to remove her limb brought back the trauma she suffered when a form of bone cancer cost her her leg. Antara Telang, an entrepreneur, in a personal essay in Arre had written, “Going through airport security for me is more traumatic than a lingering touch on my butt. I have a prosthetic leg, which makes me a security threat. It means that every time I go through a scanner, it beeps maniacally, like I’m a ticking 9/11 waiting to happen.” She writes that when she asks CISF officials to use the ETD (Explosives Trace Detector) — standard practice at international airports when it comes to flyers who wear artificial limbs, she is posed with numerous questions. She says despite the requests, pleas and arguments, she is bullied into taking off her prosthetic leg. “By the way, this also involves me taking off my pants. My leg is then passed through the baggage scanner along with other people’s phones, bags, and laptops as the above mentioned “other people” try not to stare at the smoothly sliding leg but utterly fail at it,” she writes. Insensitivity to ‘special needs’ Flyers with special needs have often been mistreated at airports by airport and security officials. There are countless incidents when an airline official has misbehaved or denied service to those with special needs. A teen with autism was denied priority boarding by SpiceJet at the Mumbai airport in 2016 and asked to join the queue, despite her showing them her special certificate. Similarly in 2019, a woman alleged that her 13-year-old son, who suffers from autism and has Down Syndrome, was forced to lie on the floor after he fell sick and was denied a wheelchair by the Air India staff at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The woman, then took to social media and posted photos of her son lying on the terminal floor and said that she had to struggle with the airline staff for more than half-an-hour to manage to get a wheelchair. Another incident had come to light in 2014 when a woman with an autistic child was told by Air India staff that they “do not accept passengers with any mental disability/challenge/autism.” In 2006, Tamil actor Prithviraj’s son, who has autism, was prevented from boarding a flight at Bengaluru by Central Industrial Security Force personnel who said he could harm other passengers. An incensed Prithviraj had then said to news agency PTI, “I want to make this issue a big one. We will make use of the publicity to see at least some good comes out of it so that people are more aware of autism or any such problem and are sensitive about it.” Centre issues guidelines Sensing a need for more sensitivity at airports, the Centre in October 2021 issued a set of new draft guidelines for aviation sector stakeholders such as airlines and airports to provide ease to disabled air passengers.

For Aviation Sector, MoCA has prepared Draft Accessibility Standards and Guidelines for Persons with Disabilities as envisaged in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017.

— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) October 26, 2021

The guidelines said that when screening passengers with prosthetics, the security personnel may use X-ray, ETD or visual screening depending on circumstances. It said that “dignity and privacy of passengers should be borne in mind during the entire process of security screening”. The draft guidelines also said that passengers who have external devices including insulin pumps, hearing aids, cochlear implants, spinal stimulators, bone growth stimulators and ostomies will not have to disconnect them for X-ray screening. Moreover, specially abled passengers should inform the airline about their complete requirement 48 hours before the scheduled departure so that the carrier can make necessary arrangements. The draft also stated that if a passenger wanted to check-in their wheelchair at the airport, the airline must ensure that the wheelchair is duly taxed and sent to the baggage make-up area with a service partner to avoid any damage. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.