New initiative of airline companies on safety of women passengers.

New Delhi. To stop the increasing cases of sexual harassment by male passengers against women passengers sitting next to them in Indian flights, airline companies have started a new initiative.

The country’s major airline companies have started a facility through which women passengers can choose seats next to other women traveling in the flight. Airlines like Indigo, Air India and Vistara have started this service for women. Airlines say that gender-sensitive seat allocation has been started to ensure that women traveling alone can fly comfortably.

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According to a Times of India report, many women who travel by air have often reported facing inappropriate touching. The touching is sometimes subtle and sometimes quite blatant. Women passengers have reported being harassed by men sitting in the back seat, sitting next to them and sometimes by men sitting right behind them. They said that choosing a seat next to another woman would be a great relief for them and would make air travel less stressful.

There will be special seating arrangements for women.

IndiGo, Air India and Vistara have taken steps by taking these matters seriously. Air India has said that it has been brought to the notice of the company that women passengers traveling alone feel uncomfortable when they get a middle seat and instead prefer aisle or window seats.

Air India has offered alternate seating for solo female passengers on flights. An Air India official said, “In our effort to adopt this practice, cabin crew members should be cautious and judicious while offering re-seats to guests. If vacant seats are available, solo female passengers seated between male passengers may be shifted to an aisle or window seat.” Sister airline Vistara was the first to introduce the seat-reassignment facility.

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The issue of in-flight harassment has come into the limelight after a Kolkata
woman living in Boston reported that she was molested during a transit flight by Etihad to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The woman has alleged that a senior company official sitting next to her in the business class first showed her a porn clip and then molested her.

In February, a similar incident was reported on a SpiceJet flight. A 26-year-old Darjeeling resident, returning from Kolkata on a Bagdogra flight, had alleged that a young man sitting next to her had touched her inappropriately.

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