Asked thrice to ‘get up & walk’ at Kolkata airport, says lawyer with disability

GURGAON: A 33-year-old woman with disabilities, who uses a wheelchair, has alleged on X that CISF personnel at Kolkata airport asked her at least thrice to “get up and walk two steps” during her security check-in on Wednesday.

Arushi Singh, a law graduate from the National University of Singapore who is based in the NCR city, questioned the “sensitivity” of security personnel deployed at airports towards people with disabilities. A CISF officer at the airport told TOI she was only asked if she could stand up and not forced to do so. Arushi said she frequently visited Kolkata for work. On Wednesday, she had an IndiGo flight back to Delhi at 7.30pm. The flight was delayed 20 minutes because of technical reasons.

“Yesterday evening 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. I 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,” read the post by @singhharushi on Thursday.

She also raised concerns about this “lack of empathy”. “Does the @CISFHQrs manual on airport security ask to insult people with a disability? This appalling lack of empathy has left me shaken and furious. There have been instances in the past too, and it shows that Kolkata airport has learned nothing from them,” she wrote, tagging the DGCA and the civil aviation ministry.

Arushi alleged although she was allowed to leave after the argument, none of the security staffers deployed nearby helped her with the wheelchair as they were busy elsewhere. “The security personnel did not even apologize for their behavior,” she wrote.

Till late on Friday evening, there was no official response from either the DGCA, aviation ministry or CISF. No official complaint had been lodged in connection with the incident either. Her X post, meanwhile, was circulated across various platforms and received widespread responses.

“Shocking and unacceptable incident @KolkataAirport that my colleague @singhharushi had to endure. How can airports be truly accessible, sensitive, and inclusive on the ground rather than merely being a stated vision?” wrote a user, tagging the civil aviation ministry.

A CISF officer deployed at the Kolkata airport said Arush was asked if she could stand up and not told to do so. The security personnel, he added, had seen in CCTV footage a passenger on a wheelchair standing up for almost 55 seconds. But they weren’t sure if that passenger was Arushi. “There are cases when a flyer stands for a few seconds to get frisked,” he said, pointing that a wheelchair has metal parts, which makes scrutiny difficult. “Those who are not able to stand are not inconvenienced.” The force at the airport, the officer said, undergo rounds of sensitisation training on how to handle people with disabilities. “We will undertake another round if needed,” he told TOI.