Video Producer: Shohini Bose
Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
A child with disability was reportedly mistreated by IndiGo airlines on Saturday, 7 May, with the staff disallowing the child and his parents to board the plane, allegedly stating that the child was a threat to other passengers' safety.
The incident, witnessed by many, has led to outrage on social media, with netizens seeking action against the airlines for their alleged "discrimination".
Meanwhile, the airline has issued a statement, saying, "In view of the safety of passengers, a specially-abled child could not board the flight with his family on May 7, as he was in a state of panic. The ground staff waited for him to calm down till the last minute, but to no avail."
The matter came to light after Manisha Gupta, a fellow passenger, wrote about the incident in an elaborate Facebook post, describing the family's ordeal. The post shared on 7 May has over 800 shares.
More About the Incident
Gupta said in the post that the child seemed distressed as he had an uncomfortable ride to the airport. While his parents were attending to him, an IndiGo staff member came up to them and warned that he wouldn't be allowed to board if he didn't become 'normal'.
However, after some time, the ground staff came and said the boy wouldn't be allowed to travel.
She added, "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 the lines of 'behaviours such as this, and that of drunk passengers deems them unfit to travel.'"
Meanwhile, other passengers, including doctors, teachers, government officials, questioned why the child wasn't allowed and had the family's back, Gupta added.
"Other doctors, teachers, and 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," it read.
But, the IndiGo staff kept saying, "This child is uncontrollable. He is in a state of panic," to which a woman passenger replied saying, "The only person who is in panic is you," her post read.
"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 a child who did not fit into his definition of 'normal', 'safe' and 'fit' people," she said.
Resultantly, the three passengers were not allowed to board the Ranchi to Hyderabad IndiGo flight.
Another user on Twitter, Aditya Mani Jha, also tweeted about the incident.
However, the airline provided the family with a hotel stay and flew them to their destination the following day, IndiGo airlines said in a statement.
IndiGo's Full Statement
Following the incident, the airline, in a statement, said, "In view of the safety of passengers, a specially-abled child could not board the flight with his family on 7 May, as he was in a state of panic. The ground staff waited for him to calm down till the last minute, but to no avail."
"The airline made the family comfortable by providing them hotel stay, and the family flew the next morning to their destination. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers. IndiGo prides itself on being an inclusive organisation, be it for employees or its customers; and over 75k specially-abled passengers fly with IndiGo every month," the statement further read, Hindustan Times reported.
(With inputs from NDTV and Hindustan Times.)
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