Airport, airline violates disabled people’s right to fly with dignity

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

It was a rare irony that the person who helped in framing the Director General of Civil Aviation’s Civil Aviation Requirement Guidelines for disabled became a victim when Airport Authority of India and Air India failed to follow the same rules.



Rajiv Rajan, coordinator of Disability Legislation Unit, South, and general seceratary of disabled people’s organisation, told Express on Monday that while he was one of the brains behind drafting the legislation which provided dignified flying for disabled people, his right to dignity was violated on Sunday night when the airport and the airlines refused to provide him and four of his colleagues with aerobridge or a ambulift.



“It is a sheer violation of “Carriage by Air of Persons with Disability or Persons with Reduced Disability’ rule framed by DGCA in 2008 and came into effect in 2009,” said A Dhanasekar, president of EKTHA and associate coordinator of Disabled Legislation Unit.



The incident happened on Sunday night while we were returning from a flight number AI540 after attending a workshop of Disabled People’s International Asia Pacific Chapter at New Delhi, said Rajiv. “We had already asked for wheelchairs and seats in the front row right after the business class. It is their duty to provide the ambulifts as they had prior knowledge that five disabled people are traveling,” he said.



As per rule number 6.3 of the guidelines, every airport operator shall make appropriate provision including ambulifts to enable disabled passengers to embark or disembark the aircraft without inconvenience.



“But the airport authorities and the airline violated the norms and said they will carry us. We protested and climbed down in protest except a woman who was carried away. Air India provided one of the best services till now but this event resulted in some bitterness,” Rajiv said.



Disabled passengers stage dharna



Interestingly, the incident was repeated again on Monday when Minakshi Balasubramanian and S S Smitha, who are members of the Disability Rights Alliance, Tamil Nadu and colleagues of Rajiv, also faced a similar problem after returning from New Delhi in flight number AI429. “Both the female passengers protested over the airport’s refusal to provide them with ambulift or aero-bridge. “We were threatened to be evacuated. But then after a dharna for more than a hour, the authorities yielded and provided us with ambulift,” said Minakshi.



“This act by the airlines is against the right to dignity. They said ambulift was under maintenance and they can’t bring it in. They said there was no other alternative. If the ladder is damaged will you give the same excuse to other passengers,” she reasoned.



Smitha said the airport officials wanted to lift us down manually but then we said it is against the right to dignity. “We are just demanding our rights as mentioned in DGCA manual. It is shows the lethargy and lack of concern towards disabled people,’ she added.

Meanwhile, an airline spokesman said that Air India is looking into the issue and issue a statement tomorrow.