Policy Issues

Analysis of India’s Civil Aviation Requirements

In continuation of the earlier articles suggesting modifications to the present Civil aviation requirements policy (http://www.disabilityindia.org/car.cfm), C Mahesh from Bangalore writes about the proposed revisions to the CAR:

  1. Section 1.1 – It reads as if Persons with disabilities are now able to travel because of ‘Low Cost and Low Frill‘ airlines. This is not true as persons with disabilities have been using air travel for a ‘long long‘ time because it is convenient and one can avoid overnight journeys. The paragraph is ‘Patronising‘ and reads like a favour is being done for ‘Disabled Passengers or Person with Reduced Mobility‘. Therefore I would suggest that section 1.1 stops at the line ending “….the common man with average income group to travel by air”.
  2. Section 1.1 – The line starting from “Whereas persons with disabilities….” should be a new paragraph and should be rewritten as “Whereas persons with disability or persons with reduced mobility like everyone else are increasingly given the possibility to travel by air….”. In this way persons with disabilities are being considered as an equal to every other passenger.
  3. Section 3.1 – Definitions – the issue that a disabled person is not able to travel independently is not only because of physical or any other limitation in the individual but it also to do with the physical structure of the airports and the imposed practices/ procedures. For example: Wheelchairs cannot enter the toilets designed for disabled passengers. There needs to be an additional line in the definition that acknowledges the barriers imposed by the facilities at the airport/ airline and the air plane that in fact disables a person. Therefore there need to be a change in the sentence to acknowledge this barrier “Disabled person or person with reduced mobility means any person whose mobility when using transport is reduced due to any physical disability…. or any other cause of disability, or age or due to the architectural barriers/ barriers caused by structural/ procedural requirements and whose situation needs appropriate attention……”
  4. Section 3.2 – The use of the word ‘abnormal‘ is inappropriate and dehumanizing. Who is considered ‘normal?‘. People for no apparent reason behave badly/ rudely do you consider them ‘normal‘? Therefore I suggest that the word abnormal should be deleted, the sentence “or from obvious abnormal physical or mental conditions” should be reframed as – “or from observations observed and reported by airline personnel”
  5. Section 4.1, Sub Section b – The sentence starting from “Airlines should develop emergency evacuation procedures” should be a new paragraph and not clubbed with the previous line as they are two different points.
  6. Section 4.4 is the most important welcome change that acknowledges that many persons with disabilities may not need an escort. Therefore the present Section 4.4 should re–ordered and should be 4.3.
  7. Section 4.3 mentions about “No airlines should be refused to carry persons traveling…severe mobility impairments….if they are accompanied by an escort” should be re–ordered and should become 4.4
  8. Section 4.5 mentions about “assistance booths/ counters” – this alone is not sufficient there should also be appropriate buses/ vehicles that must be available inside the airport for transfer from one terminal to another For example in Mumbai airport they have a Volvo bus to transfer passengers from domestic to international terminal – however the buses has steep steps and one cannot lift the passenger with the wheelchair inside the bus – and the passenger with disability has to instead come out of the airport and take a private taxi cutting across traffic to reach the international terminal.
  9. Section 6.3 – Other Assistive Devices – Passengers carrying ‘spare calipers‘ or ‘mobility aid‘ must be able to take the same as a hand baggage and the airline should not insist on checking–in this baggage as these devices could be prone to breakage. These assistive devices are essential for the mobility and independence of the disabled persons and in addition they are not ready–made products that can be replaced/ purchased to compensate the passenger.
  10. Section 7.4 mentions about ‘In Transit off loading‘ and Section 7.6 mentions about ‘Transit Stations‘ – However there is no mention of appropriate bus/ transport service to ensure easy and safe transit of disabled passengers. This point needs to be added in the CAR.
    1. There is no mention of handling baggage of checked in luggage of disabled passenger. As a rule practiced by all airlines – the passenger with disability or passenger with reduced mobility is the last to deplane. It takes 20–30 minutes for the assistance and wheelchair to arrive inside the airplane and passenger with disability is usually the last one to collect the checked–in baggage from the conveyor belt. Therefore I request DGCA to add a new section – that says – checked–in baggage of disabled passenger should be marked with a ‘Priority Tag‘ and the ground staff at the baggage section should keep the baggage in a safe place till the passenger arrives.

Source: C. Mahesh, Advocacy Coordinator, CBR Forum .

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Insurance scheme on the anvil

While the social security Bill for the unorganized sector may take a long time in becoming a reality, the disabled in the country may get their own insurance scheme funded by a unique corpus soon.

The disabled who have been denied insurance cover by companies all these years stand to get insurance as a right once the scheme is in place this year. The source of the funding of the insurance scheme is also unique.

It is to be funded through a Rs 2400 crore corpus that has accrued to the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment from public sector banks.

These banks, which had made a profit while rounding off their accounts, had been asked by the Supreme Court to spend the money for public good specifically for the disabled after a PIL three years ago.

The ministry, which has started receiving the money, plans to implement the insurance scheme in this financial year using the funds.

Interest from this corpus would be used for various disability welfare schemes and the insurance scheme will benefit from this fund, officials said.

The National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental retardation and Multiple disabilities and the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities are working out the social security cum insurance cover with various insurance companies.

A three–member team of experts, including Pradeep Ghosh of the NGO Oasis Bhopal, Dr T V Ramesh of Insurance brokering firm Alegion in Chennai, and G. Shyamala, director of ADDI (formerly Spastic Society of Northern India), has been working on the insurance scheme with the actuaries of insurance companies for the last four months.

Pradeep Ghosh, one of the experts working out details of the insurance scheme with actuaries, said it was likely to be implemented on a pilot basis in one or two districts to begin with and would be spread out to the rest of the country in phases. Ghosh added that it was a big achievement for the disabled as they had been denied insurance cover by all companies so far.

Ghosh himself an Ashoka social entrepreneur who was formerly with the IT sector said the insurance companies came forward for a Governemnt–supported insurance scheme after disability activists and lawyer Colin Gonsalvez threatened last year to move the court on the denial of insurance cover to disabled.

Poonam Natarajan Chairperson of the National Trust said that the scheme was being processed and she would not be in a position to give details now.

However sources said that the insurance cover would later incorporate products like endowment policies which would provide pensions to the disabled.

The two national agencies on disability would be sending a proposal of demands to the insurance companies and the scheme is likely to be implemented in this financial year, sources said.

Source:Sreelatha Menon. Govt plans insurance scheme for disabled. Business Standard, New Delhi, 14 September 2007.

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