Indian aviation minister reaches out with an apology on Twitter after mistreatment of a wheelchair-bound woman at the Mumbai airport went viral

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Indian aviation minister reaches out with an apology on Twitter after mistreatment of a wheelchair-bound woman at the Mumbai airport went viral
(Picture Source: wikimedia.org)
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  • A wheelchair-bound woman recently took to Twitter after she faced alleged mistreatment during a security screening at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai.
  • The woman, Viral Modi, who is also a disability rights activist, tweeted that she was repeatedly asked to get up from her wheelchair by security personnel even after she denied such requests.
  • Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, tweeted an apology, asking the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to look into the matter.
On Tuesday, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, offered an apology on Twitter to a wheelchair-bound woman whose tweet about being mistreated at Mumbai airport went viral.
The woman, Virali Modi, in a series of tweets, said that she had faced insensitive behaviour during security screening by airport personnel while checking in for a flight from Mumbai to London.

According to her tweet, she was repeatedly asked to get up from her wheelchair and even after she told the security official that she could not. Due to the insensitive behaviour, she also suffered a cramp as a woman security officer forcefully lifted her leg.



Modi, also a disability rights activist, called attention to more appropriate alternatives that are in use by other airports to help with such screenings.
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“Every other international airport has chemical strips to check the wheelchair and shoes, a disabled passenger doesn’t need to get out of their wheelchair. So why in Mumbai’s International Airport?” she tweeted.

In his tweet, Sinha also asked the Central Industrial Security Force to look into the matter again.


The CISF had responded to the Twitter thread saying that it was just part of the mandatory pre-departure security check and that the staff was polite to her.

The security check was reportedly carried out as per procedure and was unintentional. CISF responded that security is important to them but it takes care of the specially-abled flyers equally.

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