A man swaps his seat to sit next to a female passenger and then touches her while she sleeps – how do you stop this kind of sexual harassment from happening in the sky?
You segregate the men and women, according to Air India.
India’s flag carrier is planning to introduce women-only rows on its aircraft from 18 January in order to combat an increase in sexual assault on its flights.
Among the most recent incidents include the male Business Class passenger who asked to move to an Economy Class seat next to a single female traveller. He waited until she slept and then groped her.
No more than two weeks after that, a middle-aged man was arrested after being accused of molesting a flight attendant during a service from Oman to Delhi.
Air India’s General Manager of Revenue Management, Meenakshi Malik, said the airline feels a need to “enhance comfort levels for female passengers”, and believes reserved rows will help deliver.
“There are a lot of female passengers who travel alone with us and we will be blocking a few seats for them.”
Meenakshi Malik, Air India General Manager of Revenue Management
The move, coming into effect from tomorrow, has created quite a kerfuffle for the airline, with some members of the general public describing it as a poor solution that will only deepen gender inequality.
Some have pointed out that India’s trains and buses have reserved sections for women, which they believe has helped curb sexual assault. However, recent figures from ActionAid UK prove that dividing men and women on transport has done little to reduce sexual violence in every day life in India, which now sits at nearly four out of five women having experience some form of harassment or violence in public.
Others have declared the move as backwards and believe perpetrators should be punished accordingly for their actions and the airline should ensure men understand the consequences of sexual harassment before boarding a plane.
Air India starts selling seats in female-only section – or maybe PROSECUTE & BAN MEN WHO THINK THEY CAN GROPE WOMEN. https://t.co/K9EbaBceRf
— Lucinda Hawksley (@lucindahawksley) January 16, 2017
Agree @richgreenwood A better approach might be to throw perpetrators off the plane thereby establishing the behaviour is unacceptable.
— Dr Kaye Rolls wash your hands (@kaye_rolls) January 16, 2017
And then there was this man who questioned the future impact of separating men and women on planes:
Welcome to ladies compartment a la Indian Railways. Next what? Segregation of crew members? Air India is flying back in past.
— Pramod (@P_K_Srivastava) January 16, 2017
The first flight with six reserved seats for women will take off tomorrow. So far female-only rows will only be available on domestic flights.
Air India flight attendants will also have access to plastic handcuffs, which can be used to restrain passengers who are “out of control”.