The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Monday asked the Jharkhand police to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) against IndiGo for allegedly barring a specially-abled child from boarding a flight at the Ranchi airport. The NCPCR has written to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Ranchi seeking an FIR in the case for violation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and sought an action-taken report in seven days.
NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo also asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to initiate an inquiry into the matter and take necessary action against the airline and its manager.
Amid outrage over IndiGo denying boarding to a child with special needs for a flight from Ranchi to Hyderabad on Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said there was “zero tolerance” to such incidents and that he would personally investigate the matter.
IndiGo’s Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta, in a statement, said he stood by the decision of his airline staff to refuse boarding to the child in the interest of safety as he was showing signs of panic. The airline also submitted a report to the DGCA, which had tasked a three-member team to conduct a fact-finding probe within a week. The team will visit Ranchi and meet the family in Hyderabad.
According to an eyewitness account, a teen with a special need accompanied by his parents arrived at the Ranchi airport on May 7 after an uncomfortable car ride and by the time he and his family completed security check and reached the departure gate, he seemed to be in the throes of hunger, anxiety and confusion. But his parents were able to calm him down by giving him food and medicines. Yet, an IndiGo staff announced that the child was unfit to travel and likened him to drunk passengers though many including doctors pleaded that the family be allowed to travel.
‘Visibly in panic’
“All of us are distressed by this particular incident. Throughout the check-in and boarding process our intent of course was to carry the family, however, at the boarding area the teenager was visibly in panic. The airport staff, in line with the safety guidelines, were forced to make a difficult decision as to whether this commotion would carry forward aboard the aircraft. We are of the view that we made the best possible decision under difficult circumstances,” the CEO said, adding that the airline had offered to buy an electric wheelchair for the child.
Airline sources said the child calmed down only after the boarding gates had closed. They also say that while doctors can certify that a passenger is fit to fly, they can’t decide whether he or she will be a safety hazard or not.
Manisha Gupta, who witnessed the incident at the Ranchi airport, has disagreed with some of these claims. “The child was sitting quietly for nearly 15-20 minutes in his chair. When the airline manager was pointing to him and saying he is in panic, he was pointing to a quiet child. This was a child with multiple disabilities and he was moaning and calling out in such a manner that it was echoing in the airport, which led to the manager pronouncing him as a risk or likening him to a drunk passenger. All this was happening when boarding was in progress,” Ms. Gupta told The Hindu.
Airline sources have also drawn attention to the DGCA rules on “unruly passengers” to defend its manager. A senior government official has said that this is inappropriate because the rules were framed to deal with passengers who show aggressive behaviour towards co-passengers or crew and hamper flight safety. These rules were framed after Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaekwad in 2017 hit an Air India official 25 times with his slipper because he wasn’t given a business class seat.
DGCA’s rules
The DGCA’s rules on Carriage by Air of Persons with Disability (PWD) and/ or Persons with Reduced Mobility cater to issues of improving access, but not those of discrimination. The rules deal with assistance during booking, provision for wheelchairs, transportation within the airport, comfortable seating on a plane, quicker baggage delivery as well as ensuring information is available on safety procedures in Braille.
The rules for PwDs were framed after a similar incident in 2012 when disability rights activist Jeeja Ghosh, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was deboarded from a SpiceJet flight because the pilot thought she was “mad”. In 2012, the Ministry of Civil Aviation formed a committee under the then Joint Secretary G. Asok Kumar to review the DGCA’s rules for passengers with disability, and new regulations were formulated two years later. In 2016, the Supreme Court awarded her ₹10 lakh compensation in the case for the “unreasonable discrimination” towards her.
(With PTI inputs)
