Woman in Wheelchair asked to Stand at Airport
A CISF constable at the Delhi airport forced a woman in a wheelchair to stand up even after the woman repeatedly said that she can not stand.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) are a security group created by the government to protect important government buildings, the Metro, and provide airport security. Virali Modi a US citizen and disability rights activist. She cannot walk or stand and has been paralyzed after a spinal cord injury since 2006. She was travelling from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on 9th September, Monday by a Spicejet flight.
She said that due to her disability, she had surrendered her personal wheelchair to the check-in counter as cargo and had been assigned a porter to help her to her seat. A woman CISF constable at the Delhi airport insisted that Virali must stand for the security check procedure. The porter interfered and repeatedly said that Virali could not stand. Virali even showed her passport to prove that even though she is in a wheelchair she travels all over the world. Even after all this the CISF constable ignored viral. She started telling her colleagues that Virali was doing drama and could easily stand if she wanted to.When Virali heard this she immediately confronted the constable but the constable just started shouting at Virali.
Virali has written a complaint to the CISF. She said that she could not could not get the name of the CISF staff as she was standing in such a way where her name tag was not clearly visible. Finally a senior staff member came, did a manual check and let me go.In her strong letter she said, “Is this how the CISF is trained to handle people with disabilities? This is a shame on our government. I should be treated with respect and sensitivity. This behaviour is very wrong. Virali requested officials to please look into this matter and take the necessary action so this doesn’t happen to anyone with a disability.A few years ago, Virali had faced a similar incident at the Mumbai airport where the CISF staff insisted she stand up. When she said she couldn’t, one of the women troopers pulled so hard at her leg that she had to be hospitalised.
