The Delhi Commission for Women on Wednesday wrote to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recommending ways to strictly deal with rising incidents of alleged misconduct and urination on flights.
In a letter to the DGCA Director General Vikram Dev Dutt, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal made several suggestions, including preventing highly intoxicated persons from boarding the aircraft, limiting alcohol intake in flights, installation of CCTV cameras in aircraft, putting offenders on a six-month “no fly” list and ban on repeat offenders for lifetime and making seating arrangements for a woman travelling alone adjacent to a female passenger.
The women’s panel had issued a notice to the aviation regulator seeking details of action taken and its guidelines to deal with such cases.
The DGCA, in its response, had shared a copy of certain guidelines for such cases as well as a copy of an advisory it had issued to all airlines on January 6, the DCW said.
“Upon examining the prevalent guidelines, the commission observed that the rules do not provide specific instructions to properly handle, report and redress cases of sexual harassment of female passengers at airport or on flights. Further, they do not list out any steps to deal with highly intoxicated passengers,” the DCW said in the letter.
Sexual harassment
The letter further read, “The commission has also noticed that the crime of sexual harassment is simply treated as an ‘unruly behaviour’ by the DGCA guidelines. This is unacceptable as it belittles the trauma faced by sexual harassment survivors and prevents proper handling of such cases.”
“The commission has, therefore, recommended creation of separate category for crimes of sexual harassment,” it added.
Some other recommendations by the women’s rights body include registration of FIR against the “offender”, setting up an independent committee to probe the complaints of sexual harassment from passengers headed by a retired woman judge and sensitising airline staff. It also suggested stronger action against airline and crew members in case they fail to implement a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment.
Asking the aviation body to consider its recommendations, the DCW has also sought an action-taken report into the incidents from the aviation body in the matter within 30 days.
In the latest incident on March 5, an Indian student, studying in the U.S, Aryan Vohra, 21, allegedly urinated on a co-passenger on an American Airlines flight from New York to Delhi. Earlier in November 2022, a passenger named Shankar Mishra, 34, allegedly urinated on an elderly woman aboard an Air India flight from New York to Delhi.
Mr. Mishra was arrested from Bengaluru in January this year even as Air India faced severe criticism over its handling of the matter. He was later granted bail by a Delhi court.
