Isn’t traveling by air considered one of the most sophisticated means of transport ? It certainly isn’t for the physically challenged people in India. They tend to undergo the most harrowing experiences during air travel, as most air operators do not provide them with adequate facilities while boarding or getting off a plane. All this is in spite of the Civil Aviation rules for carriage of persons with disabilities in place, trip.
Recently, when three passengers with disabilities, B Meenakshi, Rajiv Ranjan and T M N Deepak, while travelling from Chennai to Hyderabad by a private airline, had problems when the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) denied them permission to travel with their own wheelchairs owing to security reasons. They were asked to shift to the wheelchair which the air operator provided. They are incidentally activists from different organisations for the disabled like Equals, EKTHA and Tamil Nadu State Federation of Disabled People (TNSDF).
“The civil aviation guidelines clearly state that people with disability should not be moved from their wheelchairs specially designed for the person. Even otherwise, it is necessary to consider how difficult it is for us to shift from one wheelchair. There are technologies available in other countries which make the wheelchair easily detectable. Those facilities are available in Chennai and many places in India,” said Meenakshi during a meet organised by EKTHA foundation on Sunday.
On their return journey, the aircraft, at Hyderabad airport refused to provide ambulift or a ramp, that should be mandatorily provided to people with disability. Instead they were asked to pay `15,000 to avail those facilities, which is again against the Civil Aviation (Access to Air Travel for Disabled Persons and Persons of Reduced Mobility) Regulations 2007 that defines that once the passenger has bought a ticket to travel, it is obligatory on the part of airlines to provide all other facilities to the disabled without incurring any further expenditures.
Furthermore, when the disabled people resisted paying, the security people lifted them with their wheelchairs into the aircraft in a dangerous way.
“Don’t we have a right to travel in a dignified manner? Every time we are made a show-piece and treated with disrespect. We have the right to travel with equal respect when we also pay money for it. But carrying or lifting us awkwardly disregarding our feelings is totally distressing and unexplainable,” said T M N Deepak, Vice President of TNSFD.
Their immediate demand is to make facilities available in all the airlines in India to ensure safety and dignity of the disabled passengers.
According to them, this is not just one incident, there are various such instances at many places other than airlines where the people take advantage of their vulnerability.
“It is disheartening to imagine the state of a disabled person who has nobody to fight for when we activists are being treated in such a manner,” said Deepak.
Source : The New Indian Express , 8th October 2013
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