CISF to train staff in dealing with autistic air travellers

The CISF will train its security personnel at airports in providing special care to passengers suffering from autism, a condition where a person exhibits a different behaviour when touched or frisked.
Officials said the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will begin the initiative by first putting its men and women, deployed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), through a special training session module.
The central paramilitary force has tied up with an NGO to train its personnel in handling such special commuters.
CISF chief O P Singh will inaugurate the first training session on August 31 in the national capital.

A senior official said while CISF personnel posted at the Delhi airport will be trained in identifying and understanding such passengers. The training will then be extended to 58 other airports that the force guards.
The official said there have been few incidents in the past where the security personnel, who frisk air travellers before taking a flight, have come across such children and passengers and there has been "some confrontation".

Sometime back in Mumbai, the official said, a young boy suffering from autism had a tough time with the CISF security personnel at the airport when they began frisking him.

The training module prepared by the NGO will help CISF personnel be more courteous and caring while dealing with such passengers, the official said.
The CISF may also plan to have separate frisking booths for such passengers, provided they get space at the airports, he said.
Autism is a medical condition and disorder that impacts the nervous system and affects the overall communication, emotional, social and physical health of the person affected by it.