Disable bureaucratic blindness, empathise

In a country where even able-bodied people find it difficult to negotiate infrastructural deficiencies and unmindful planning, the case of Falguni Maheshwari is a reminder that for differently-abled people, life in India can be one of perpetual crisis which, instead of being solved, one is forced to get used to. Or not. Maheshwari, a student in Germany, was stopped at Ahmedabad airport from boarding her flight to Bhuj because she did not have a fit-to-fly certificate. Wheelchair-bound Maheshwari flew on a 9-hr flight from Frankfurt without a hitch on the same airline, Air India, but was deboarded from her domestic connection, leaving her stranded at the gate.

Recall a 2022 Ranchi airport case where IndiGo barred a teenager with a neurological disability because staff 'panicked'. Or the tragic 2024 Mumbai incident where an 80-year-old man died after Air India failed to provide a pre-booked wheelchair, forcing him to walk 1.5 km? This is unthinking bureaucratic blindness. Ground teams routinely throw up barriers, hide behind vague 'safety' jargon, and treat assistive service as a burden. This problem is not confined to airports. Police naka points suddenly pop up on our roads without any logic or warning--an arbitrary roadblock created by people in uniform simply because they have the power to do so.

DGCA's manual is clear: airlines can't demand medical certificates unless a passenger has a contagious or life-threatening condition. While Maheshwari's mistreatment exposes a shocking lack of empathy, it points to a deeper malaise: failure of basic institutional training. Why can't airlines institutionalise this: if it needs a document, ask for it at the time of booking. Rules should be made to serve people, not the other way around.