On Mothers Day, a Special mother harrassed by an insensitive and arrogant Indigo Manager at Ranchi Airport, India

Dear Colleages,

The airlines may be talking big, but their employees bring all the efforts back to square one. Indigo has worked hard to gain respect of passengers with disabilities for their accessible facilities and timely departures, but if the below account shared by a sensitive fellow passenger who saw what unfolded at the Ranchi Airport on 07th May 2022, is to be understood in right context, it only indicates that disability sensitivity trainings are not happening correctly and not all is good with Indigo too.

A Facebook post on how the staff of IndiGo airlines barred an adolescent with special needs from boarding a plane along with his parents at the Ranchi airport on Saturday has created an uproar on social media forcing the airline to issue a statement clarifying why its staff did so. The Facebook post originally shared by Manisha Gupta who witnessed the incident has now gone viral. 

"The Indigo staff announced that the child would not be allowed to take the flight. That he was a risk to other passengers. That he would have to become 'normal', before he could be travel-worthy. And the staff then went on to state something on lines of 'behaviours such as this, and that of drunk passengers, deems them unfit to travel," the Facebook post written by Manisha Gupta said.

 

 AN INCIDENT OF DISCRIMINATION AND SHAME AT THE RANCHI AIRPORT 

Yesterday (07th May 2022), at the Ranchi airport, an adolescent with special needs, was in great distress. He had had a very uncomfortable  car ride to the airport. By the time he had gone through security check and reached the gate (almost an hour ahead of boarding), he seemed to be in the throes of hunger, thirst, anxiety and confusion. 

His parents obviously knew how to handle his meltdown - with patience, some cajoling, some stern-ness, many hugs etc. And the other passengers were stopping by to ask if they needed any help or support. 

This caught the attention of the #indigoairlines  staff, who walked upto the trio, and warned them that he would not let them board, if the child did not quieten down and become 'normal'.

By the time the boarding began, the child had been fed. He had had many sips of juice and water. His parents had successfully given him his medicine and he seemed ready...except for some big displays of general teenage assertiveness.

Then we witnessed the full display of brute authority and power. 

The Indigo staff announced that the child would not be allowed to take the flight. That he was a risk to other passengers. That he would have to become 'normal', before he could be travel-worthy. And the staff then went on to state something on lines of 'behaviours such as this, and that of drunk passengers, deems them unfit to travel.'

He was immediately gheraoed by other passengers. They opposed him resolutely. They assured the staff that as co-travellers, they had no objection to the child and his parents boarding the flight. Several went on to the Indigo airline website and challenged the Indigo manager to calibrate his decision with corresponding statements in the rule book. 

There was a delegation of doctors who were taking the same flight. They asked the ground staff to get the airport doctor and let him/her take a call on the fitness of the child to travel. They offered to provide full support to the child and his parents, if any health episode were to occur mid-air. "We are doctors traveling with this child and his family. Now let him board," they said.

Other doctors, teachers, government officials emerged from the widening ring of passengers. They held  up their mobile phones with news articles, Twitter posts on supreme court judgements on how no airline could discriminate against passengers with disabilities.

"This child is in uncontrollable. He is in a state of panic," the Indigo manager kept shouting and telling everyone. But all we could see was a young adolescent, sitting very quietly on a wheel chair, terror-striken by how he was being called out as a risk to the normal world. "The only person who is in panic is you," a woman passenger retorted.

 "I am a government official and I can tell you that it is this child's right to travel. You cannot discriminate against him," a senior passenger said. "This is my decision and you cannot do anything about it," the manager said very sharply.

'Why don't you confer with the captain?' ' Please call your manager'. 'His normal is not the same as your normal'. 'Look, he has travelled many times before on flights. He was a just having a bad day, he is fine now.' ' Yes, please let him travel'...

Threats, pleas, dialogue, negotiations, hands folded in request --- nothing  from the parents and circle of passengers worked in the face of that one person who had made up his mind last evening to fully exercise his power to exclude those who did not belong to his world of 'normal',  and  'fit' people.

Then, at the end of it all, the Indigo flight from Ranchi to Hyderabad departed, leaving behind three courageous Indians at the boarding terminal, who probably fight everyday for love, respect and dignity. The security guard locked and secured the boarding gate with an iron padlet and chains, even as the mother pleaded from the other side of the glass door. The other passengers, including us, slowly dispersed to catch our own flights. 

It was late night. Ours was probably the last flight out. As I stepped into the chute to board, I caught a last glimpse of this family -  a father, mother and child on a wheelchair, standing alone in a large, empty and deserted terminal, ring-fenced by airport staff and security. 

As I write this, all I remember is that in those 45 minutes of argument, temper, rage and contestation, the three had not once lost their dignity or raised their voice or spoken one irrational word. Not for a moment did they come across as unbeaten.

"Do you know what it means to be a parent?," the mother had asked the airline manager. "Do you think as a mother, I would ever let my child harm himself or anyone?"

What unfolded last evening at the Ranchi evening was a snapshot of  us . Us as a 'no country for mothers. Us as a 'co country for children'. No country for mothers who are different, No country for mothers who are raising children who are different.

#indigoairline - you are a disgrace to this country.

#mothersday2022

Another account by a Doctor traveling on the same flight as given to the Quint.

'As a Doctor, I Urged The IndiGo Manager to Let The Special Needs Child Board'

The nicest thing to come out of this sad story was the sensitivity of people.

DR SUMIT RAY

Updated: 10 May 2022, 1:02 PM IST

(Dr Sumit Ray is a senior consultant in critical care medicine. He was waiting at the Ranchi Airport when IndiGo barred a child with disabilities to board a flight to Hyderabad. The following is an as-told-to account, recorded and written by Sakshat Chandok.)

I was waiting at the Ranchi Airport on 7 May when I heard that a special needs child was crying. He was irritable and hungry as he had just come from a long, uncomfortable car ride, and his parents were looking after him.

He also had a cast on his arm, and was probably in some pain and discomfort, which made him restless and added to his woes.

Since he was a child with multiple disabilities, he took some time to calm down. When he finally did, it was time for their flight to start boarding passengers.

At that time, a manager from IndiGo said that since the child was "crying and panicking", he couldn't allow him to board the flight. He has to become "normal", the manager asserted.

Since the child was stopped from boarding, many passengers took it up with the the IndiGo representative. They explained to him that the child has special needs, and that he was restless earlier but had calmed down later. And after the child had stopped crying, he was sitting calmly on the wheelchair for 25-30 minutes.

There was also a team of six to seven doctors who were also boarding the same flight as the child and his parents. They said that if there is any problem on board, they would take care of it. "He's a child on a wheelchair," the doctors told the manager, adding, "He cannot be a threat to anybody.”

IndiGo Manager Was Unempathetic and Particularly Aggressive

The IndiGo manager was arguing with everybody. "You don’t understand. The child is panicking," he said, asserting that people who are under the influence of alcohol or behaving like the child would not be allowed to board.

Everybody got angry with him, but still people were very polite. The passengers on his flight and on other flights came together to explain to him, cajole him, but to no avail. They also urged him to call his senior, to which he said, "I am the senior person."

At that point I questioned him, “Do you even understand what the child’s problem is?” To which he replied that he knew it. So, I asked him what the child suffered from. “That’s not important. He was panicking," the manager retorted.

We asked him whether there was a doctor in the IndiGo team, to which he said that there wasn’t one. Then I suggested to him to call the airport doctor to examine the child.

Some people even asked him to talk to the captain of the flight. He said, “No, I know better.”

I also said that as doctors, we know that the child is not going to be a threat to anybody. But he just refused. He was aggressive and unempathetic.

Lacking in Training

I’m not trying to blame any airline. IndiGo has a fair reputation of taking care of people with special needs. But obviously there is something lacking in their training.

And it’s not just training. The manager was particularly difficult. Even the policemen who were there, who have no authority to allow a person on the flight, were asking the manager to let the child board.

He repeatedly said that the child had to become “normal”, to which we said that normal for him is different compared to what it might be for you. He was totally unwilling to listen or understand. He didn’t even know what disability meant.

He knew that most passengers would have to leave to catch their flights sooner or later, so he delayed the entire process to ensure that the child does not board the scheduled flight.

It is absolutely essential that we sensitise staff, particularly those who are dealing with people with special needs at different sites of interaction.

Sensitisation in different areas has certainly helped to create more awareness. In this particular situation, what the media, disability sector activists and others have done, has made people aware of special needs to a great extent.

IndiGo claims that they are good with people with disabilities, and I’m certainly not countering their claim. But in this situation, there was a failure on the part of the system.

According to me, the airline should have flown the child on the next direct flight. They should have an SOP in such a situation, as per which they should become more aware and receptive. Secondly, if so many people are saying something that is in disagreement with the airline’s representative, he needs to involve his seniors.

Sensitivity of People The Only Good Thing to Come Out Of This Sad Story

The nicest thing to come out of this sad story was the sensitivity of people. There was not a single person apart from the manager who said that the child should not be allowed to board.

Every passenger on the boy’s flight said that they had no problem with the child flying in the same plane. Most people in the airport didn’t know what kind of special needs the child had. But they had the empathy and understanding that he required a special kind of care.

It was just this manager and his ego that did not permit the child to board. “You are stuck now because of your ego,” almost everybody told him, but he didn’t listen.

DGCA constitutes 3 member fact finding committee 

After outrage over an incident of alleged discrimination against a child with disabilities by IndiGo airlines, India's aviation regulatory body, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Monday, 9 May, constituted a 3-member team to conduct a fact-finding probe. The team will visit Ranchi and Hyderabad to conduct the investigation.

"The fact-finding team will visit Ranchi &Hyderabad and collect appropriate evidence within one week from today. Based on the outcome of the said inquiry, further action shall entail," DGCA said in a statement.

This comes hours after Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, on Monday, 9 May, said in a tweet, "There is zero tolerance towards such behaviour. No human being should have to go through this! Investigating the matter by myself, post which appropriate action will be taken."

NCPCR Takes Cognisance of the Incident

Meanwhile, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said in a tweet, “An incident of misbehaviour with a specially-abled child by staff of IndiGo at Ranchi airport has come out. Cognisance is being taken for appropriate action.”

Source: The Quint

Indigo boy, my child — Travelling with autism (Indian Expresss)

Shubhra Gupta writes: How long will it take for us to realise it is not just about him, that we all need the wind beneath our wings?