New Delhi: Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Tuesday wrote to DGCA regarding the increasing incidents of "disruptive and unruly passengers" on flights in the last few months.
In a statement to DGCA DG Vikram Dev Dutt, Maliwal wrote, "the Commission has drafted detailed recommendations on amendments that should be made to prevalent guidelines so that cases of sexual harassment & unruly behaviour are dealt with strictly on flights and in airports."
The statement referred to recent cases of harassment caused by passengers on two flights- one on November 26 in which a man reportedly flashed his private part and urinated on a 70-year-old woman on an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi, and another on December 6 in which a man again urinated on the seat of his fellow woman passenger on an Air India flight from Paris to New Delhi, while both of these men were in a highly inebriated state.
"The Delhi Commission for Women has observed increasing incidents of disruptive and unruly passengers on flights in the past few months. Such incidents are extremely unpleasant and traumatizing for the passengers," the statement read.
Days after two incidents of Air India passengers, the commission issued a notice to DCW seeking "details of the action taken by them along with the guidelines issued by the body to airlines for tacking such cases."
In January, DGCA provided a copy of certain guidelines along with a copy of the advisory issued for all airlines to the commission.
"Upon examining the guideline and the advisory, the commission has observed that these do not provide specific instructions to airlines to properly handle, report, and redress cases of sexual harassment of female passengers at airport or on flights," according to the statement.
"Further, they don't list out any steps to deal with highly intoxicated passengers," it further read.
DCW chief has also requested DGCA to provide an Action Taken Report within 30 days.