Saturday, May 19, 6:39 pm
Turbulent Skies For Air Hostesses
Image Source: www.sevenstarsandstripes.com
Another case of molestation of an air hostess was reported on Monday, involving a 36 year old man who allegedly misbehaved with an air hostess on an Air India flight from Saudi Arabia to New Delhi. This is not the first of its kind case in the recent past, raising questions on the security of female cabin crew.
Only last week six Bangalore-bound passengers from Patna had been offloaded from an IndiGo flight and had been arrested for misbehaving with an air hostess. As per the complaint by the airline, the accused rang the on-board alarm to call the airhostess. When she asked what they needed, one allegedly said: “We need you.”
In January this year, 23 members of a premier Goan football team, the Churchill Brothers, in Mumbai had been grounded after an airhostess was allegedly molested by three footballers from the team. The safety of air hostesses is a major concern not only when it comes to passenger but pilots as well.
An Air India air hostess had last year moved the National Commission for Women (NCW) in the case of her alleged molestation and assault by two pilots on board a flight from Sharjah to New Delhi. Only three days ago there was furore over remarks made by a pilot of a Pakistan International Airlines flight. Unaware of being heard over an open mike, he called an air hostess to bring his meal to the cockpit by singing the song, “Aa bhi jao sanam, tujh ko meri kasam”.
The problem especially in India is that a complaint is filed against the passenger indulging in misbehavior and gets a bail later. In one of its kind case, only last year a chartered accountant had to spend a month in judicial custody after he was arrested for aggression on board a Goa-Delhi IndiGo flight.
The question is how to make airlines safer for their female crew members? Should the laws be made more stringent or there is also a need to have security on board every flight?
Travelling myself, I have seen air hostesses falling victim to harassment by male passengers, and they hardly have any choice but not to lose the smile they carry on their faces, which they are required to as a part of their training. There is definitely a need to give a serious thought to this issue and to bring an end to such incidents which requires immediate intervention of the government.
The problem is that men who behave like this are often traditional and conservative types from homes where women only live to serve men. In the minds of these men every woman who is not a slave is a prostitute. Sad, sad, sad!!!
Wish othet than rigrous securuty check we can also hace some kind of sanity check for these kinda passengers
Sad. Is it a reflection of our sick society? Or result of an unhealed trauma? Or a simple disrespect for the women? The materialism has taken precedence over morals, and while many illiterate politicians, the spoiled brats of people in power, and so-called ‘macho’ breed of neo-rich, are becoming the role models of our youth (thanks to the television where such acts of violating the decent human behaviour is celebrated), one only wonders what could be done to tackle such free-roaming monsters. Is law the answer?