'Parivaar' condemns attitude of CISF personnel towards disabled

Bangalore, Oct 6 (UNI) The National Federation of Parents' Association - 'Parivaar' today took strong exception to the attitude of the Central Industrial Security Force personnel towards handling an 11-year-old boy with autism and his parents at the Bangalore airport on October four.

''The act shows how insensitive some of the public servants could be and how much ignorant they are about various disabilities and the laws governing them,'' Parivaar President J P Gadkari said in a release here.

The Chennai-bound Tamil actor Prithviraj, his wife and son spent some anxious moments at the airport as a CISF Sub-Inspector declined to permit the boy to travel on the Air Deccan aircraft, citing an archaic rule of the Airports Act. However, CISF senior officials and Air Deccan personnel intervened when Mr Prithviraj contacted them and the family was allowed to proceed after a prolonged wordy duel.

Mr Gadkari urged the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry to pay more attention to creating awarness among the authorities and the society in general about the disabilities and various provisions and facilities available to such people. ''A constant campaign through media is essential,'' he added.

He said it was surprising that an unknown and archaic act had been suddenly flaunted by the authorities to prevent the entry of a person who appeared ''different'' to them. However, even the so-called Act to prevent the entry of ''undesirable'' persons into an aircraft said that mentally-challenged persons should be accompanied by a relative or a doctor depending on the state of the person. ''In this case, the autistic boy was accompanied by both mother and father. Then why the authorities took this atrocious stand,'' he asked.

He said ''we the parents of children with either an intellectual or developmental disability like mental retardation or autism and cerebral palsy have to suffer double trauma in our life - one of having a child with one of these disabilities and second suffer humiliation at the hands of insensitive authorities and the society at large, as most of the poeple have no knowledge of disabilities, particularly the intellectual and developmental disabilities.'' UNI MSP GD GM2003