In a bid to address the growing concerns from Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) at the airports during security checks, the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) held detailed consultations on Thursday at the CISF Headquarters in Delhi with representatives from leading NGOs from across the country working for rights of PWDs, all the 64 Chief Airport Security Officers (CASOs) of CISF, officers of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and officers from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The consultation was chaired by Director General of CISF, M.A. Ganapathy where the NGOs representing the PWDs were heard and assured that a process would be formed to streamline the security check process for all PWD passengers travelling through Indian airports. In the meeting, it was also decided that the CISF would constitute a committee of stakeholders at all airports with reference to the issues faced by PWDs and an increased focus on training and sensitisation of the personnel handling the issues of the PWDs will also be undertaken. The DG CISF has also assured the NGOs attending the meeting that a periodic review would be undertaken every six months to understand if the force needs to improve on any such issue further.
“DG, CISF assured the NGO participants that CISF is committed to address the issues related to differently-abled passengers and all efforts are being made to ensure that they should not face any problem at the airports,” a CISF spokesperson said.
The CISF spokesperson further added that the aim of this conference was to discuss standardization of the processes across all the airports under CISF security cover in dealing with PWDs, and to minimize the problems faced by them during pre-embarkation security checks at the airports.
“Through the NGOs, CISF also tried to establish communication with the end users, explaining the security compulsions and best possible efforts being made by CISF at the airports to address the problems of the passengers with special needs. CISF is committed to make air travel a smooth and happy experience and this conference was aimed to further work-out issues in this domain,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier last month, notable actor Sudha Chandran had reached out to the Prime Minister through social media after she had to face an “ordeal” at the airport security check in, where she was asked to remove her prosthetic leg for detail security check. Many other PWDs had sent in complaints to the CISF as well as to the Prime Minister’s office and the Home Ministry requesting for addressing this issue being faced by PWDs at airport security checks.
According to the existing guidelines prescribed by BCAS for security checks of PWDs at the airports prosthetic legs or any prosthetic body parts must be thoroughly screened and checked for explosives or other threat materials. Detailed guidelines for frisking of wheelchair bound passengers have also been issued by BCAS.
Sources in BCAS said that the current security guidelines for frisking differently-abled passengers, their equipment like wheelchairs, prosthetics and others were brought in BCAS following the 2016 Somalia blast where a wheelchair-bound passenger was suspected to have carried out a blast in the aircraft after evading security at the Mogadishu airport.
