SC issues mandatory guidelines for airports dealing with wheelchair users
The Supreme Court on Tuesday laid down guidelines for airports across the country on how to deal with wheelchair-bound passengers.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday laid down guidelines for airports across the country on how to deal with wheelchair-bound passengers, laying emphasis on training airport staff to be compassionate towards the needs of such people, who may either have disabilities or be the elderly needing assistance.
A bench headed by justice JB Pardiwala passed the directions while considering a petition filed by Arushi Singh, a wheelchair-dependent person who went through a traumatic experience at the Kolkata airport in February this year, when a staff at the airport asked her to stand up during security clearance.
Shaken by the experience, Singh raised questions on the need of awareness to assimilate the persons with disabilities into society. Based on suggestions received from the ministry of civil aviation and airport authority of India, jointly represented by solicitor general Tushar Mehta and additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, the bench directed those suggestions to be treated as “mandatory guidelines” by airports across the country.
Stressing on sensitising the staff as the need of the hour, the bench, also comprising justice Pankaj Mithal said, “We dispose the petition laying more stress on sensitising the staff at the airport to be more compassionate towards physically disabled passengers.”
The suggestions by the Centre stated that airport staff should be given regular sensitisation training in addition to their regular security training. While staff, who is required to interact regularly with individuals with disabilities should be trained every three months, other staff serving at the airport should undergo the training once or twice a year. The training, according to Centre, should introduce the staff to various forms of disabilities and their consequences for the afflicted individuals.
The bench said, “The suggestions which have been noted above shall be treated as mandatory guidelines and should not be limited only to wheelchair users, i.e., persons with disabilities but may be extended to elderly people also who may need wheelchair facility.” However, this would not do away with the requirement of providing physical assistant for the elderly people at the airport, it added.
Further, the bench directed that the training classes for the staff should involve training them to successfully assist the wheelchair-bound persons with any issues they may face.
The suggestions given by the SG required specialised kiosks to be set up for dispensing boarding passes with voice recognition facility for such persons. The Centre has a Unique Disability Identity Database (UDID) that could also be integrated into existing ticket booking websites. This database has a repository of information of individuals who are suffering from various sorts of disabilities and contains an extensive list of disabilities in various categories.
Further, the Centre proposed having boarding passes for individuals with disabilities with alphabet code indicating the nature of disability and a colour code denoting the severity of the condition. The suggestions also considered the possibility of such passengers needing timely assistance with wheelchair that could be provided on every gate at the airport. It also shared the prospect of developing a real-time wheelchair availability monitoring software to provide a real time update on the number of wheelchairs available at specified, demarcated points in the airport.
Arushi, the petitioner in the instant case, had recorded the entire incident on her mobile and shared it on the micro-blogging platform X. The video went viral and garnered numerous reactions. In her petition, Singh sought to realise the spirit behind the laws providing reasonable accommodation to persons with disability under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and other rules including Civil Aviation Requirements and Screening Guidelines. The petition also sought additional measures for segregating passengers with physical disabilities and provide training to security personnel and airport staff for being sensitive to persons with disabilities.