Ms. Agarwal, a disability rights worker, was carted around on a luggage trolley at Delhi T3
Disability rights activist Anjlee Agarwal of Samarthyam, who was last week “literally thrown off a flight” in Raipur for objecting to the non-availability of an aisle chair, again had a harrowing experience with an airline. This time it was at Delhi's swanky T3 terminal that Ms. Agarwal found herself being carted around on a luggage trolley with no side support as the Air India staff could not get her an aisle chair.
Narrating her experience, Ms. Agarwal, who was recently part of a major access audit for government buildings in Delhi, said she had to undergo the humiliation of being transported in a luggage trolley on Thursday while returning to Delhi from Mumbai via Air India flight AI 660.
At Mumbai, Ms. Agarwal said she had requested the Air India crew to get her an aisle chair while de-boarding at the T3 airport in New Delhi. However, when the flight reached the Delhi airport, the aisle chair was not there to help her de-board.
Request not met
“I had to wait for 20 minutes and finally, after lot of hue and cry, I got to see a luggage trolley for transferring me from the aircraft seat. I was carried in the luggage trolley chair which had just two wheels instead of four and also did not possess an armrest for side support,” she said.
Lamenting that this was the state of affairs at T3 in Delhi, which is supposed to be a “world class airport”, Ms. Agarwal said she had a harrowing time being hauled around on the luggage trolley. “I was not able to balance myself on the narrow seat, my feet were dangling and I kept asking for another aisle chair to be given to me while being carried to the aircraft gate.”
She said she lost her balance several times, as she has limb girdle muscular dystrophy. Apart from this, she “also felt extremely embarrassed and insulted as 12 to 13 persons [both the crew and ground staff] looked at me with pity!”
Due to such mishandling, Ms. Agarwal said she had to be physically shifted four times at the airport. “I was transferred again from the luggage trolley to another wheelchair at the aircraft gate. Then on reaching the conveyer belt [luggage belt], I got my wheelchair and was transferred onto it. Finally, I was transferred from my wheelchair to the taxi.”
Describing the experience as “very exhausting, disgraceful, scary and unsafe,” the rights activist said it was unfortunate that “still people with disabilities are seen as luggage and are discriminated against”.
Incidentally, this is the third major case of harassment to disabled passengers that has come to light within the past fortnight. Earlier in February, a SpiceJet pilot had forced Jeeja Ghosh, head of advocacy and disability studies at the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy at Kolkata off a Goa-bound flight because he was “abnormal” and was not accompanied by help.
In view of such repeated incidents, Ms. Agarwal and Samarthyam have urged the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to come up with recommendations on handling persons with disability and to take immediate action against all airlines that are insulting disabled passengers and violating the policy rules.
Indemnity bond
“We want training of all ground staff, pilot and crew for transferring and handling persons with disabilities,” she said, demanding that people with disabilities should also not be made to sign an indemnity bond as it is discriminatory, since it does not cover people with hidden illnesses.
Among other things, the rights group has also demanded that aisle chairs should be made available in all aircraft for wheelchair users and all persons with disabilities should be allotted front and aisle seats, if requested.
Keywords: Disability rights, Anjlee Agarwal, inhuman act, discrimination, Indian airliners
I cannot walk and use a wheelchair. I have travelled to more than 50 countries. India is the only country that makes it very difficult to travel for persons with disabilities. Recently, I faced the same problem in Bangalore's new world class airport. They couldn't locate an aisle chair to transport me to my wheelchair, which was outside the aircraft. There was not even one in the airport. Finally, the staff lifted me out of the aircraft. Passengers should always insist their personal wheelchair should be brought to the aircraft. My wheelchair has broken a few times in India when taken to the baggage claim. I live in the United States where all airports have an aisle chair at each boarding gate. Airports in other countries have multiple aisle chairs. India may have advanced in many ways, but still remains to be a society of exclusion rather than inclusion for persons with disabilities. Changes in atttitude and not resources are necessary to bring full accessibility in India.
Did the Avaiation Minister said something about world class airports?? Get the basic needs first. you folks don't have wheel chair! how are you gonna fly planes. No wonder you go in loss!! and somebody has to bailout. the point is try offering better service. It need not be free. This has nothing to do with infrastructure. Its just common sense. Every time we board an aircraft we pay an hefty percentage on Airport tax. What is happening to that tax if you folks can get a wheel chair.
I completely agree that better amenities should be provided in
public places. And thanks to Ms Bhatnagar that she reacted to her
plight though she seems to be advocating for a general cause. I
suggest that along with the present issue she may concentrate
more on having better amenities for people who are not so
fortunate to travel by air and have to bear with our transport
systems for whom handicapped people are nonexistent. our
transport buses don't even have convenient steps to board it, do
our railways provide anything special to help them. The drivers
are not even trained how to handle these passengers.
An aisle chair is a narrow wheeled chair without sidearms to take invalids from the seat to the door of the aircraft only as the normal Wheelchair cannot fit (its too wide with 4 wheels and armrests) in the aisle. A normal wheelchair was provided/ready at the aircraft door and the passenger was taken to the luggage belt. Her own personal wheelchair must have been taken off the belt and she transferred. Outside again she transferred to a taxi as i guess she could not be towed home. where is the big deal Mr Bhatnagar except that the airline was AI ???
This is definitely a disgrace to society.
THere is a general apathy among service sector to provide appropriate facilities to the public. We see the lack of cencern everywhere. No toilet facilties for passengers, dirty environment in buses and railway coaches (OF late, we experince lot of mosquitto and rodent manace) etc are missing. Even if they are there, they are not properly maintained. People inthe helms of affair in such palces do not bother. Take the roads. There are no pedestrain crossing in many places. (That people do not want to use them even if they are there is another story.) Pedestrians have to walk in the road and compete with speeding vehicles to cross or walk. The list inconveniences goes on.......
Dear Mr. Bhatnagar, It is incorrect to blame the airport. World
over,its the norm that a passenger makes a request for a wheel chair
at his or her destination with the airlines. It is the concerned
airline that provides for the wheel chair,and not the airport.
Recently I had a chance to stay in Singapore for a month, and the most
striking feature about the city-country is its extraordinary support for
physically challenged people. Almost every construction including
amusement parks and resorts are constructed keeping in mind, the
challenges faced by the physically challenged people. This shows that it
is not so difficult to accommodate the needs of this group with just a
little effort.
Welcome to Delhi's world class airport. Please bring your own aisle chair.
I agree that special dispensation ought to be made available for people with disabilities. Having said that, in a country where most people travel by train with absolutely no accommodation for those with disaiilities, one should be tolerant of shortfalls. Yes, there is lot that 'should' be done; there are a lot of rules that 'should' be complied with, but when the baggage handlers, crew and support staff are undereducated, undertrained, underpaid, they may not even be aware of such issues, leave alone the infrastructure needed for helping such people. In this specific instance, if the woman in question was thrown down the aircraft stairs as alleged,(which is a bad thing if it is indeed true), I do not see evidence thereof such as bruises, broken or bones. What I do see is another hullabaloo being made when special accomodations were not made in another instance. People help others who are courteous, polite, patient and tolerant.
Prima Donna behaviour will not help.
Ms. Agarwal's and Mr. Ghosh's experiences came to light only because of their activism on Disabled Accessibility issues in our country. Sadly though, countless others are humiliated, talked down to in condescending terms and otherwise denied even basic courtesies that are expected between a paying customer and the provider, be it an airline, a hotel management or any other. A typical model code of regulations can be found in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that was enacted in USA almost 25 years ago, that bans all kinds of discrimination against disabled and imposes stiff penalties for non-compliance.
As long as the public looks on as mute spectators (condoning the behaviour of service providers as being "normal" or necessary") and as they share the outmoded idea that these "disabled" people "belong" in the house and souldn't expect "concessions" from the gov't, things will never change for the better. The push for action should come from right-thinking,able-bodied people.
India boasts so much about it s fast grwoing developments in various areas. But This s highly disgraceful on the part of the airlines and the govt not showing adequate care to transport and make movements easya nd comfortable to the relevant passangers. But again just not only this s the place but n other areas,like making them wait n public govt offices, banks, carparkings , trains and buses, are also combersome for the otherwise abled persons.
We raise noice at the topr of our roofs saying we are first n software, 1st n happy living etcetc all for just waste if we cannot setright this most and basiccally needed comfort to the public .
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