Airport discriminated against me: differently abled woman

Antara Telang (24), a differently-abled woman from Mumbai, ended up in tears at the city airport on January 30 while travelling to Bengaluru.

Ms Telang alleged that security officials asked her to remove her pants and show them her prosthetic legs, as they wanted to be sure she wasn’t carrying anything on her person. Venting her anger on Twitter, Ms Telang said, “Good job continuing to discriminate against disabled passengers by Mumbai airport. I’ve written to the airport authority but they’ve not followed up.”

She added, “Other airports use an ETD (explosives trace detector) machine to scan my leg but never at Mumbai. They always take me to a private room and make me take off my legs.”

Talking to The Asian Age, Ms Telang said, “My flight was at 6.30 am on Saturday and around 5 am, I was passing the metal detector so I informed security officials that I have prosthetic legs. They took me to a tiny room and told me to take off my pants and legs. Earlier, I have written to authorities but every time while travelling from Mumbai, I have to face this humiliation. I have come across similar incidents nearly ten times at Mumbai airport.”

When contacted, Hemendra Kumar, deputy commandant (public relations office) of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which manages security at the city airport, said, “We have not received any such complaint from Ms Telang yet. Our staff is well-trained and there is no chance of misbehaviour. We will still investigate and take action if anyone is found guilty. At the same time, the city is already on high alert and we have to ensure security.”

A director at a startup, Ms Telang, a resident of Sion, lost her legs in an accident when she was 18 years old.