Amid a rise in number of ‘unruly incidents’ reported on flights, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Wednesday recommended a set of revised Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) guidelines to protect women passengers from sexual harassment.
In her letter, Swati cited the cases of Shankar Mishra, who is accused of urinating on a woman passenger during an Air India flight from New York to Delhi and another alleged mid-air peeing incident by a male passenger on a woman’s blanket on an Air India Paris-Delhi flight. Adding that both men were in an inebriated state at the time of the incidents, the DCW chief requested DGCA for a system to monitor highly intoxicated people and prevent them from boarding the flight.
DCW has taken suo-moto cognizance of the above incidents and issued a notice to the regulatory body asking for information regarding the action taken, the letter stated.
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Apart from putting a limit to alcohol intake onboard an aircraft, Swati has proposed the installation of CCTV cameras, a provision to raise an alarm and brochures against sexual harassment in flights. The airline crew should be sensitised about sexual harassment and the non-implementation of a zero-tolerance policy against such incidents should be dealt with severely, Swati wrote in her letter. Demanding higher accountability from airline companies and the aviation regulator, she sought a monthly report to be shared by DGCA with the Ministry of Civil Aviation on the sexual harassment cases reported on flights and in airports and the action initiated.
Recommending stricter punishments for people accused of sexually harassing co-passengers, the letter noted that registration of FIR, constitution of an independent panel headed by a retired woman judge to probe such complaints, raising the period of flying ban from six months to two years, should be put in place.
According to DCW, the present DGCA guidelines consider sexual harassment as ‘unruly behaviour’, which belittles the trauma faced by survivors. To avoid this, the commission suggested forming a new category for crimes of such nature.
DCW also asked for an action-taken report in the matter within 30 days.
(With inputs from agencies)
