You may know her as the Ramola you witnessed on TV eons ago, but veteran actress Sudhaa Chandran is also an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer. Despite tragically losing her foot in an accident, Sudha continues to dance and act with the aid of a prosthetic foot.
She recently took to social media to share her ordeal at an airport where the security asked her to ‘remove’ her prosthetic foot and show it to them. She voiced her appeal to the central government and the state government, saying,
“I have danced with an artificial limb and created history, making my country proud. But every time I go on my professional visits, each time, I am stopped at the airport, and when I request them at the security, to the CISF officials, that please do an ETD (Explosive Trace Detector) test for my artificial limb, they still want me to remove my artificial limb and show it to them.”
Sudhaa spoke of how it ‘hurts’ to walk through security ‘grills’ each time and added, “Is this the respect that a woman gives another woman in our society? It is my humble request to you Modi ji that please give senior citizens a card that says they are senior citizens.”
She concluded her video urging the authorities to take prompt action. CISF then promptly responded to her complaint by stating, “We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to Ms. Sudhaa Chandran. As per protocol, prosthetics are to be removed for security checks only under exceptional circumstances.”
IE reports them adding, “We will examine why the lady personnel concerned requested Ms. Sudhaa Chandran to remove the prosthetics. We assure Ms.Sudhaa Chandran that all our personnel will be sensitised again on the protocols so that no inconvenience is caused to travelling passengers.”
Apart from making public spaces and facilities physically accessible for people with disabilities, it is critical that senior citizens are treated with dignity and respect at every juncture, don’t you agree?