IndiGo bars specially-abled child: Scindia says no human being should have to go through this

A fellow passenger, in a detailed Facebook post on Sunday, narrated the whole matter calling it "an incident of discrimination and shame" and shared some pictures and a video of fellow passengers questioning the airline's diktat. To this, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, on Monday, said that no human being should have to go through this and that he himself would personally look into the incident.

Ranchi: A day after IndiGo barred a specially-abled child from boarding a flight at the Ranchi airport, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, on Monday, said that no human being should have to go through this and that he himself would personally look into the incident. The incident which took place on Saturday, came to the fore, after fellow passengers took to social media on Sunday. Reacting to this, Scindia tweeted, "There is zero tolerance towards such behaviour. No human being should have to go through this! Investigating the matter by myself, post which appropriate action will be taken."

A fellow passenger, in a detailed Facebook post on Sunday, narrated the whole matter calling it "an incident of discrimination and shame" and shared some pictures and a video of fellow passengers questioning the airline's diktat. Manisha Gupta, who said she was travelling by the same flight, shared an elaborate post on Facebook about how IndiGo stopped the specially-abled teenager and his parents from boarding the flight because the adolescent had a slight meltdown.

The Indigo staff, according to Manisha, announced that the child would not be allowed to take the flight because he was a "risk to other passengers". "That he would have to become 'normal' before he could be travel-worthy. And the staff then went on to state something on lines of 'behaviours such as this, and that of drunk passengers, deems them unfit to travel," the post read.

The other passengers opposed this diktat from the airline and assured the staff that as co-travellers, they had no objection to the child and his parents boarding the flight. Several went on to the IndiGo airline website and challenged the IndiGo manager to calibrate his decision with corresponding statements in the rule book.

However, IndiGo staff did not change their decision of barring the child from taking the flight, she said. When asked about the incident, IndiGo said, "In view of the safety of passengers, a specially-abled child could not board the flight with his family on May 7, as he was in a state of panic." The ground staff waited for him to calm down till the last minute but to no avail, it added.

The airline made the family comfortable by providing them with a hotel stay and they flew the next morning to their destination, it said. "We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers. IndiGo prides itself on being an inclusive organisation, be it for employees or its customers; and over 75,000 specially-abled passengers fly with IndiGo every month," it said.