Another victim of airline trauma

Just a week after being bodily dumped off from the Jet Connect aircraft by four male airline staff despite her request for an aisle chair, Delhi-based disability activist Anjlee Agarwal had to face it all over again, this time with the state-run carrier Air India.

Anjlee, who, ironically, is the access consultant for the NGO Samarthya, had informed the flight attendants to get the aisle chair while deplaning at Delhi’s T3 terminal at Mumbai as she was on transit from Goa.

“At Delhi airport, I waited for 20 minutes and finally after lot of hue and cry, I got to see a luggage trolley for transferring from the aircraft seat,” Anjlee said in a
statement circulated to disability groups.

“The trolley had only two wheels instead of four and there was no armrest.

“I was not able to balance myself on the narrow seat, my feet were dangling and I was shouting for another aisle chair to be given to me while being carried to the aircraft gate.

“I not only lost my balance several times, as I have limb girdle muscular dystrophy, but also felt extremely embarrassed and insulted while 12-13 persons (both the crew and ground staff) looked at me with pity,” she said.

“In short it was very exhausting, disgraceful, scary and unsafe! Still, people with disability are seen as luggage and they are discriminated. The trauma and humiliation we face not only demoralise us, but also force us to take serious action against the airlines,” Anjlee said.

“I want to appeal to the entire disability sector to work together to reinforce –training and amendment of DG CAR (Civil Aviation Requirements on Carriage by Air of Persons with Disability),” she said, appealing to fellow activists.

The incident comes despite widespread publicity and protest against the way Jeeja Gosh, a trainer with Kolkata-based Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy was deplaned by the captain of the Spice Jet aircraft and Anjlee was manhandled by staff of the Jet Connect airlines when she was deplaning at Raipur recently.