Disabled activist ‘humiliated’ at airport after security demand she take off her trousers

A group of disabled activists were “insulted and humiliated” at Kolkata airport in India, after one woman was told to take off her trousers and another was told she could not fly unaccompanied.

Prominent campaigners Kuhu Das, a polio survivor, and Jeeja Ghosh, who has cerebral palsy, were travelling to New Delhi for a United Nations conference on disability, along with fellow activists Ratnaboli Ray and Shampa Sengupta.

Although catching the same GoAir flight, the women made their own way to the airport and had planned to meet up at security.

However, wheelchair-user Ms Ghosh was initially told she could not fly unescorted and would have to wait for her colleagues.

Ms Ghosh, who is the former head of Advocacy and Disability Studies at the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy and has a Masters in disability studies from Leeds University, has travelled extensively for work.

She was “very insulted” by the airline’s attitude, reports the BBC.

The check-in agent eventually apologised, but the women said it was not about the individual, but about the entire airline’s attitude to disability.

At security, Ms Das encountered her own issues when staff asked her to remove her metal callipers (a type of leg brace often used by polio survivors) so they could be scanned.

The security agent insisted, even when Das explained she would have to take off her trousers to do so.

“For a moment, I couldn’t believe my ears,” she told The Times of India. “It was absolutely shocking and utterly humiliating.”

When she refused to comply, Ms Das said the agent told her colleague that she “had never seen anyone like me before. It was like I had come from another planet.” She called their treatment of her “insensitive”.

Ms Das added: “It is unacceptable that every time in India, they want me to take off my callipers which effectively means they are asking me to take off my trousers.”

She said she has never encountered this problem outside India.

After the story was picked up by local and international media, Kolkata Airport issued an apology on social media.

It said in a statement: “We would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to Ms Jeeja Ghosh and Ms Kuhu Das during check-in process at Kolkata Airport. The matter is being strongly taken up with concerned teams to ensure that such incidents does not happen again.”

GoAir released its own statement, saying: “GoAir sincerely apologises for the unfortunate incident that took place during the check-in process of a handicap passenger on GoAir flight G8102 from Kolkata to Delhi. The handicap passenger did not pre-book a wheelchair but asked for one at the check-in counter. The duty staff upon realising all three wheelchairs allocated for the said flight were occupied, informed the passenger that she will try to source a wheelchair. It took a few minutes to arrange a wheelchair. GoAir apologises for the delay in sourcing the wheelchair.”

It failed to address the accusation that staff told Ms Ghosh she couldn’t travel unaccompanied.

The incident follows a disabled passenger travelling through New Delhi airport in September being ordered to “stop doing drama” and “stand up” for a check by security staff.

Virali Modi, an American disability rights activist who has lived in Mumbai since 2008, is a wheelchair user and has been unable to walk or stand since she sustained a spinal cord injury in 2006.

She claims she informed the security agent of this, only to be told she had to stand up in order to be checked.

Ms Modi, 27, told The Independent: “I felt humiliated and angry that something like this could happen in 2019, even after having a disability law in place in India.”