New Delhi: Yet another disabled passenger was harassed at the airport on Friday. Satendra Singh, who was travelling from Hyderabad to Delhi, was asked by security at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to remove his leg brace during frisking. Singh, who teaches at the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi University, has post-polio residual paralysis and uses a knee-foot-ankle-orthosis (KFAO) also called a caliper or brace, for support.
The confrontation with security officials — the latest in a string of such encounters between differently-abled passengers and airport officials — lasted about 20 minutes before the officials capitulated.
"They wanted me to remove the caliper and run it through the x-ray machine," says Singh, "In my case that's quite difficult as it goes up to the thigh. I would've had to remove my trousers to take the caliper off. It was humiliating. I wanted them to carry out an Explosive Trace Detector (ETD) test and was willing to let them frisk me."
25/02/14 Times of India
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The confrontation with security officials — the latest in a string of such encounters between differently-abled passengers and airport officials — lasted about 20 minutes before the officials capitulated.
"They wanted me to remove the caliper and run it through the x-ray machine," says Singh, "In my case that's quite difficult as it goes up to the thigh. I would've had to remove my trousers to take the caliper off. It was humiliating. I wanted them to carry out an Explosive Trace Detector (ETD) test and was willing to let them frisk me."
25/02/14 Times of India
