Majority use Digi Yatra in Delhi airport unknowingly or under compulsion: survey | Data

A majority of air travelers in Delhi unknowingly or reluctantly used the Digi Yatra biometric boarding system, according to a survey.

A majority of air travellers who flew out of Delhi using Digi Yatra, the biometric boarding system that helps in processing passengers at select airports, did so unknowingly or were compelled to use it. A relatively small number of people signed up for the system knowing the benefits it offered. Moreover, a significant share also said that they had not signed up for the service and always took the normal queue.

These conclusions are based on a survey conducted by LocalCircles on its online portal. The portal received 21,000 responses from citizens who flew out of Delhi airport in the last six months. Over 60% of the respondents were men and the rest were women. Only Indian citizens who were registered with LocalCircles were allowed to participate in the survey, which was published on January 27.

The Digi Yatra facility has come under severe criticism in recent days. Last month, many passengers complained on social media about how their biometric data was collected without their consent at various checkpoints in airports. The scheme was rolled out in December 2022 as a voluntary programme. However, 15% of the respondents in the LocalCircles survey said that they signed up for the facility as there was no “regular queue”, as shown in Chart 1. 

Chart 1 | The chart shows answers to the following question in the survey: ‘When you travelled by air in the last six months, how did you sign up for the Digi Yatra programme?’

Charts appear incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode

Last week, responding to a letter from Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale raising the privacy concerns of travellers, the Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said that the process is voluntary and the consent of the passenger a prerequisite. Survey data show that 29% signed up for it without knowing that the queue was meant for Digi Yatra. Among the rest of the passengers, 41% did not use the app, while 15% used it knowing the benefits it offered.

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