DCW issues recommendations to DGCA to tackle unruly passengers on flights
The Hindu
Aviation regulator’s existing guidelines don’t provide specific instructions on handling sexual harassment cases, says women’s panel Limit alcohol intake on flights, put offenders on ‘no fly’ list: DCW recommendations to DGCA after urinating incidents
New Delhi
The Delhi Commission for Women on Wednesday wrote to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recommending ways to strictly deal with rising incidents of alleged misconduct and urination on flights.
In a letter to the DGCA Director General Vikram Dev Dutt, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal made several suggestions, including preventing highly intoxicated persons from boarding the aircraft, limiting alcohol intake in flights, installation of CCTV cameras in aircraft, putting offenders on a six-month “no fly” list and ban on repeat offenders for lifetime and making seating arrangements for a woman travelling alone adjacent to a female passenger.
The women’s panel had issued a notice to the aviation regulator seeking details of action taken and its guidelines to deal with such cases.
The DGCA, in its response, had shared a copy of certain guidelines for such cases as well as a copy of an advisory it had issued to all airlines on January 6, the DCW said.
“Upon examining the prevalent guidelines, the commission observed that the rules do not provide specific instructions to properly handle, report and redress cases of sexual harassment of female passengers at airport or on flights. Further, they do not list out any steps to deal with highly intoxicated passengers,” the DCW said in the letter.
The letter further read, “The commission has also noticed that the crime of sexual harassment is simply treated as an ‘unruly behaviour’ by the DGCA guidelines. This is unacceptable as it belittles the trauma faced by sexual harassment survivors and prevents proper handling of such cases.”