Gurugram Woman on Wheelchair Asked to Stand 'Thrice' By Kolkata Airport Staff, Shares Ordeal Online

A Gurugram resident using a wheelchair encountered a distressing incident within a kiosk at the Calcutta airport’s domestic terminal security check-in, raising concerns about the awareness of security personnel regarding the needs of individuals with disabilities. Arushi Singh, who has a disability from birth, faced the ordeal during her flight to Delhi when a staff member at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport insisted that she stand up not just once but ‘thrice’.

In her account shared with ‘X’ on February 1, Arushi expressed, “Yesterday evening [January 31] during the security clearance at Kolkata airport, the officer asked me (a wheelchair user) to stand up, not once but thrice. First she asked me to get up and walk two steps into the kiosk.” Despite Arushi explaining her disability, the staff persisted. “Told her I can’t as I have a disability. Inside she again asked me to stand up. I said I can’t. She said sirf 2 minute khade ho jao. I explained again that I have a disability by birth.”

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In the brief but exasperating episode lasting only a minute or two, Arushi shared with The Telegraph Online, “The whole episode lasted barely a minute or two. I was exasperated and shouting while it lasted,” Arushi told The Telegraph Online. “I had to use the supporting walls to push the wheelchair on my own to exit from the kiosk. The security personnel did not even say a sorry for her behaviour and the wheelchair assistant from the airlines was busy elsewhere.”

The lack of assistance persisted, with Arushi noting that given that most wheelchair assistants were helping passengers, the officer in question did not feel the need to help her out of the kiosk when the security clearance was completed. Moreover, there was a 20-minute delay before wheelchair assistance was provided.

Having been a frequent traveller between Delhi and Calcutta for work-related trips over the last one and a half years, Arushi clarified that her frustration also extended to delays in obtaining a wheelchair at the Calcutta airport. “The personal wheelchair I use has to be checked-in and a smaller wheelchair is provided by the airlines. At the Calcutta airport, a call has to be made at the airlines counter for wheelchair assistance. Only on getting the call do they provide the service. There is often a delay in getting the wheelchair,” she explained.

Expressing her frustration on ‘X’, Arushi questioned, “Does the @CISFHQrs manual on airport security ask to insult people with disability? This appalling lack of empathy has left me shaken, furious. There have been instances in the past too and shows that Kolkata airport has learnt nothing from them.”

The post quickly gained traction, with people condemning the insensitivity and labelling the staff’s behavior as utterly ‘shameful’.

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Meanwhile, amidst the commotion, serious doubts loom over the adherence to the Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for screening passengers with special needs and medical conditions, as issued on March 28, 2014, by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The SoP specifies that “if the passenger can stand but cannot walk, he or she can be screened by undergoing a pat-down while he/she stands beside the wheelchair or scooter. If a passenger cannot stand, he/she should be offered a chair for screening and subjected to a pat-down thereafter.”