New Delhi [India], March 15 : The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), requesting amendment in the current guidelines to prevent sexual harassment and unruly behaviour against female passengers on flights and in airports.
DCW chief has also recommended actions against intoxicated people and requested the regulatory body to prevent highly intoxicated persons from boarding the aircraft by establishing a mechsm to detect and report such passengers.
"Media has reported recent cases of harassment and misconduct by passengers on two flights, one on 26 November 2022 in which a man reportedly flashed his private part and urinated on a 70-year-old woman in an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi, and another on 6 December 2022 in which a man again urinated on the seat of his fellow woman passenger on an Air India flight from Paris to New Delhi. It has been reported that both of these men were in a highly inebriated state," DCW chief Swati Maliwal said in a letter to the DGCA on Wednesday.
As per DCW, an alcohol intake limit must be put in place while passengers are on board. The Commission took suo-moto cognizance of these incidents and issued a notice to DGCA seeking details of the action taken by them in the above-mentioned incidents along with the guidelines issued by the body to airlines for tackling such cases, the letter read.
DCW chief has further recommended stricter actions on intoxicated passengers.
"Upon examining the guidelines and the advisory, the Commission has observed that these do not provide specific instructions to airlines to properly handle, report, and redress cases of sexual harassment of female passengers at airports or on flights," Maliwal said in the letter.
"Further, they don't list any steps to deal with highly intoxicated passengers. The Commission has drafted detailed recommendations on the amendments that should be made to the prevalent guidelines so that cases of sexual harassment and unruly behaviour are dealt with strictly on flights and in airports," the letter read.
DCW chief Maliwal also requested the DGCA to incorporate the recommendations made by the women's panel into existing DGCA guidelines and provide an Action Taken Report within 30 days.
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