Long queues, unorganised check-ins, overflowing lounges, and missed flights. The images from Delhi airport have gone viral prompting a visit by the civil aviation minister and decongesting measures. Officials, however, point out that what has gone unnoticed is the crowding leading to severe strain on airport personnel including CISF, the force incharge of airport security.
Officials tell News18 that since October the CISF personnel on duty at Delhi airport have not had weekly offs. The leaves have also been cancelled. “The leave ratio is currently at 1.6% instead of the average 14%. It means while earlier we could accommodate leaves for 14 out of 100 personnel, now only 1 person on average can be granted leave,” a senior officer explained.
The airport-guarding force has also had to pull out personnel who were on administrative duty for security roles at terminal 3, 2, and 1 of the Delhi airport. 60 additional personnel have been deployed over the last few days alone.
Officials, however, expect the crisis to be short-term. “Usually this kind of rush lasts till New Year when the holiday season is on. However, we have to be prepared for the next challenge of fog delaying flights,” an official said.
Currently, about 3,500 CISF personnel are deployed for core duties — anti-hijack, anti-terrorism — at the Delhi airport. While the sanctioned strength in 2017 was 5,000 personnel to tackle all aspects of the inflow of about 67 million passengers, post-Covid the passenger inflow has gone up to about 70 million. Officials point out that since private security agencies have taken up non-core duties, the strength of CISF has also gone down. When asked if private security personnel are also contributing to the long queues, an airport official said that it could be a contributory factor.
“A CISF constable undergoes training for a year while the private security guard is trained for airport duties for three weeks. In the first week, he/she learns on the job by observing the CISF personnel, in the second week the CISF personnel stands and observes while the security guard carries out his role, by the third week he/she is put on the job. Though the CISF personnel are within visual range to guide in case of any problem, there are issues sometimes,” an airport official said.
Passengers too are less receptive to instructions from non-uniformed personnel adding to the chaos in a crowd management situation, said the official.
Picking up lessons from the Delhi airport situation, the CISF is training 8,000 personnel and has also proposed raising two Mahila battalions to be deployed at various new airports that are coming up. Officials said that airports like Bengaluru are registering 56% women passengers while even smaller airports like Patna have more than 25% female passengers, leading to more requirement for women personnel on frisking duty. On average, about 15% CISF personnel deployed at airports are women.
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