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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-06-08 14:07:14
With both
fresh cases and the positivity rate rising alarmingly in India, the government
today announced that those flyers that refuse to wear masks after repeated
warnings at airports and for the entire duration of the flight will be treated as "Unruly Passenger" as defined in para 3.1 of Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR)
Section 3 and the procedure in
respect of handling such unruly passenger, as provided in above mentioned CAR,
shall be followed by the concerned airline. In short, the passenger can
be asked to de-board if he is already on the flight.
This is a step in the
right direction. With the restriction of keeping the middle seat vacant not in
force anymore, passengers sit very close to each other. Hence, masking should
be mandatory for all passengers to prevent the virus from spreading. It is
difficult to understand why even well-meaning people have an aversion to
wearing masks in public, more so because it has been proven that it is the best
defence against the spread of the virus in public places. With cases rising and
the possibility of a fourth wave not being ruled out by experts, people have to
be more concerned about their health and the health of their fellow citizens.
They must always wear a mask when they are in public and have to be close to
others.
In India, it is seen that
any government directive is not likely to be followed universally if not backed
by a penalty. Ever since almost all states decided to do away with mandatory
wearing of mask and removed the penal provisions, not even 10% of the
population wears it out of concern for their health and the well-being of the
community. Hence, this is the right time for the Centre to once again invoke
the Disaster Management Act and make wearing of masks in public places
mandatory nationally. We need to prevent the fourth wave at all costs and
masking up is the first step to do so.