Discriminatory Retrograde Amended DGCA Guidelines
National Platform For The Rights of the Disabled
The DGCA amendment penalises those who are atypical in appearance, communication or behavioural expression by requiring additional screening by the average lay person or medical professional who has not been exposed or sensitised to disability or even diversity of the human experience.
22 July 2022
The Freedom of Movement Coalition (FMC) condemns in the strongest possible terms the discriminatory targetting and retrograde medicalisation of disability being introduced in the Director General of Civil Aviation’s 7th Revision to CAR Section 3 Series M Part I - Carriage by Air - Persons with Disability and/or Persons with Reduced Mobility released on 22/07/2022
Coming in the wake of the traumatic Ranchi airport incident where a young teen with disability and his parents were refused carriage by Indigo Airlines for reasons of ‘safety’ until the child became ‘normal’, this revision instead of acting as a jolt to review the many lapses in policy implementation of passengers flying with a disability, has added insult to injury.
The 3rd June 2022 draft instead of addressing the rot in the system (refer list of issues in point 3 of sector submission) that has set in despite the 2016 Jeeja Ghosh judgement and the 2012 Asok Kumar Committee Report , chose to confine itself to one item : insertion of para 4.1.36 :
4.1.36 : Airline shall not refuse carriage of any person on the basis of disability. However, in case, an airline perceives that the health of such a passenger may deteriorate in-flight, the said passenger will have to be examined by a Doctor- who shall categorically state the medical condition and whether the passenger is fit to fly or not. After obtaining the medical opinion, the Airline shall take the appropriate call.
The paragraph preceding the planned insertion earlier read as follows :
4.1.35 : Before refusing carriage to any person on the basis of disability, the airline shall specify in writing the basis of such refusal indicating its opinion that transportation of such persons would or might be inimical to the safety of flight.
Despite specifically seeking comments ONLY on para 4.1.36, the DGCA has not only ignored the disability sector’s objections on the fit to fly issue and conflated the planned revision into para 4.1.35 which now reads
4.1.35 : Airline shall not refuse carriage of any person on the basis of disability and/or reduced mobility. However, in case, an airline perceives that the health of such a passenger may deteriorate in-flight, the said passenger will have to be examined by a Doctor in person - who shall in his/her opinion, categorically state the medical condition and whether the passenger is fit to fly or not. After obtaining the medical opinion, the airline shall take an appropriate decision on the carriage of such passenger. In case of refusal of carriage by the airline, it shall inform the passenger in writing with the reasons therein immediately.
To reiterate what was stressed in the disability sector’s 1 July 2022 submission the amendment above “is not viable and should be withdrawn. It is inappropriate in its conflation of ill-health and disability : disabled passengers don't need doctors to certify their 'fitness' to fly, some unwell passengers from the general population may. The amendment penalises those who are atypical in appearance, communication or behavioural expression by requiring additional screening by the average lay person or medical professional who has not been exposed or sensitised to disability or even diversity of the human experience.
The reality is that 'disruptions' or 'safety' incidents during a flight could be more likely babies crying due to ear pain, someone having a cardiac crisis or a drunk passenger being offensive or belligerent. Are we going to make all passengers undergo a breathalyser and BP test or encourage co-passengers, staff and crew to be flexible and accommodative of differences?“
Furthermore, despite a plethora of incidents daily affecting the safety and well being of passengers with disabilities (passengers being carried up steps on a wheelchair, inaccessible shuttle vehicles, inappropriate wheelchairs, loss and damage of wheelchairs, long waits etc) the only other change made in this revision is the long overdue correction of the reference to the outdated 1995 Disability Act
1.5 : No requirement of this CAR shall have overriding effect on any of the provisions of “ The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act , 2016” and the Rules issued by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India under the provisions of the said Act.
The DGCA has remained silent to the other regressive change impacting flying with a disability in India - the BCAS 2022 security rules also need to be rolled back (like this doctor intervention amendment) to be in sync with what the disability sector submitted in (Rajesh Bhatia et al, 2014) - the provisions on artificial limbs (in violation of Supreme Court orders of December 2021), are illegality apart, again a cause of pain and distress to the disability community.
The Freedom of Movement Coalition thus urges a roll back of this revision and a meeting to address issues raised by the disability sector which have been unresolved for over a decade now.
THE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT COALITION
THE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT COALITION is a pan-Indian group advocating for equity in transport. We can be reached at freedom-of-mov...@googlegroups.com
Following persons may be contacted in case further clarifications are required.
- Arman Ali +919864102555
- Muralidharan +919868768543
- Rajiv Rajan via Vaishnavi Jayakumar +919003088388
- Or any of the FMC members listed below
Coalition Members :
• Adv. K.R. Raja • Centre for Accessibility in Built Environment (CABE) • December 3 Movement (D3M) • Disability Law Initiative • Disability Rights Alliance (DRA) • Diversity and Equal Opportunity Centre (DEOC) • Ektha • Global Network for Equality (GNE) • Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) • National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) • National Platform for Rights of Disabled (NPRD) • Nilesh Singit • Odisha State DisAbility Network • Rahul Bajaj • Rajive Raturi • Samarthyam, National Centre for Accessible Environments • Dr. Satendra Singh • Shishu Sarothi • Sruti Disability Rights Centre • Swabhiman