BENGALURU: Several complain of how intrusive airport security checks have got in the US. From intrusive pat-downs to, on occasions, giving strangers a glimpse beneath your undergarments. Closer home, things are a bit more easy, one may think.
You are flying home to visit your parents. You arrive at the airport an hour early to avoid the rush at the boarding counter. After showing your boarding pass, you get to the security checks area. You pull out your cellphone, laptop and iPad and place them in separate bins for an X-ray scan. You walk through the door frame metal detectors and get the wand – hand held metal detectors.
The constant beeping has got everyone’s attention, including the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) men. You try to explain to them you are wearing prosthetic legs, and thus starts elaborate and at times intrusive checks and interactions with rude officials.
“I can’t remove the prosthetics, I told them,” recalls Dhruv Batra, 23, of one such encounter at the Kempegowda International airport in March.
“They asked me to remove my trousers, after that I convinced them and I was let off without having to take off the prosthetics,” recalls the IT professional who works in the city.
Things however were not so smooth, when his flight landed at the Chandigarh International Airport that day. “Despite me telling them that the helping aid I use to put it on is in my check-in luggage, the authorities didn’t relent. I tried to tell them that I can show you how long my residual leg is, but I don’t want to remove it,” says Dhruv who is a right leg above-knee amputee.
Dhruv unpacked his check-in luggage and removed his prosthetic portions on the leg to be allowed to board the flight.
“Removing it is not the problem, but assembling it back on is. You have to understand, it is a plastic and metal apparatus. I need to put it back on with the right angle and body weight balance. For a new user, it is very difficult,” he says.
Aditya Mehta, a double-silver medalist at Para-Asian Cycling Championship had a rather bloody encounter at the airport in Bengaluru.
“I was forced to remove my prosthetic leg and almost stripped during security checks. The Assistant Commandant who was the security in-charge was extremely rude. When I asked which rule book asked the artificial leg to be removed, they didn’t have a proper response,” he says.
Aditya claims he was left bleeding at the airport at one such encounter. “One official told me, tu kaise nai nikalega (how dare you not remove it),” he recalls.
Aditya says he was informed that the CISF officials were following the guidelines laid down by BCAS – Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.
“Being asked to strip, remove a prosthetic leg, run it through the X-ray scanner and then put it back again at an airport is not only inconvenient, but a gross violation of human right to dignity. A loss of limb shouldn’t be equal to a loss of dignity too,” he says.
Antara Telang, 24, director of a startup in the city says, “On October 18, I was asked to take my leg off at the Bengaluru airport security check,” she recalls. She has a below knee amputation in her right leg.
She says that she has flown out of at least 10 different international airports and adds, “they’ve never asked me to take it off even once including at major airports in capital cities such as Paris and Madrid. Even in Delhi for that matter, I’ve never been asked. Most airports use Explosive Trace Detector (ETD).”
“There is one way to ensure that airport security checks are thorough but aren’t intrusive for amputees - full body scanners. Many foreign airports have these scanners, but we don’t have it currently in any airport in India, since it is very costly,” explains Manjit Singh, Public Relation Officer of the CISF.
To avoid uncomfortable, rude and intrusive instances for amputees, Aditya suggests authorities to follow international airports, where a special glove is used to pat the prosthetic limb or wheelchair “and there can be a system where prosthesis users can undergo a physical check without and having to remove it, followed by an ETD check”.
Dhruv stresses the need for a set protocol among airport authorities in the country in dealing with amputees. “They should have mobile scanners. Just pointing me out from the crowd, taking me to another room, asking me to strip and prove that I am ‘clean’ is frankly very uncomfortable,” he says.
Aditya has taken up the issue with the BCAS and CISF on having a set protocol and arming the airports for proper security checks for the handicapped.
“It is just a blame game between BCAS and the airport operators, everytime I bring up the issue. BCAS tells me they have a body scanner in Delhi, but it is not operational,” says Aditya.