New Delhi: Airport body scanners have one thing in common with Valentine’s Day cards — the ability to raise “cultural” hackles in India.
Full body scans may be becoming the norm at Western airports, but the indication today was that if they had to start in India at all, they may have to be watered down.
No decision has been taken yet on the subject, CISF director-general N.R. Das told a news conference, saying it involved “cultural issues” in India as against the merely “privacy” issues it involved in America.
Apparently, not only were Indian passengers too shy about exposing their body outlines via the scanners, the airport security personnel were equally squeamish about watching these.
Sources said the personnel behind the machines were blushing during a recent trial at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
“The body’s contours are too clearly visible through the machine, and this is seen as culturally undesirable in our country,” a government official said.
Besides, the sources said, the government was still unsure if the radiation levels from the full body scanners were within safety limits.
India has for nearly five years successfully blocked a proposal for body scanners at airports. Since February, a committee of officials from the bureau of civil aviation, CISF and Intelligence Bureau have been examining the matter. Then it will go to the cabinet committee on security.
According to sources, full body scans could be used as “second-level” screening at Indian airports, applied only to those whom the frisking personnel found suspicious. Or, they could be made optional, which means a passenger would need to agree to being body-scanned.
08/03/11 Nishit Dholabhai/The Telegraph
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