Nearly every week there is a new report of an airline passenger offended by the security screening within the the USA. Cries about being groped or frisked too roughly, or outrage of being touched in an area where the sun doesn’t shine are heeded to the media. All for what? To assert that airport security is too invasive? That because you are a middle aged white person you couldn’t possibly be a threat? And this got me thinking how many tourists arrive in India daily, unaware of what awaits them at the end of their exotic journey in the land of camels, mangoes, and really touchy airport police.
Unlike the TSA agents posted throughout U.S. airports, who range from the overweight to undereducated, India’s airports are patrolled by honest to goodness, properly trained Indian police. Dressed in standard khaki uniforms, crisp shirts with sharp pant creases, each topped with a British army green or blue beret, the male and female officers of India’s police take their job very seriously. Many officers carry rifles, some still carry machine guns, a rather intimidating image coming from a country where our officers print POLICE in big letters on their shirts as a scare tactic. Yet I’ve always found the police officers of India’s airports to be cordial and most, both male and female, impossibly good looking.
What to Expect from a Security Screening
Passengers departing on international flights from India will be directed to airport security immediately after clearing Immigration. Passengers departing on domestic flights within India will be directed to security beyond the ticket counter.
At this point women are separated from men. Individual lines are formed as they move toward metal detectors.
All carry-on bags are to be placed on the moving belt for x-ray screening. Each bag is required to have a security tag attached provided by the passenger’s airline. Passengers may keep shoes on, belts must come off. Laptops must be removed and placed into individual bins as well as camera batteries, all jewelry, coin and any other metal objects.
Metal detectors in India apparently are very sensitive as every passenger sets off the warning signal.
Women: A female officer will direct you behind a make-shift room with hanging curtains where a physical inspection will occur. Women are subject to more invasive searches (some call it groping while others consider it frisking) including the touching of top and bottom areas. Men are not present.
Inevitably there is a female foreign tourist emerging from the privacy curtains in tears, sprinting toward her boyfriend in a scene which follows a consistent pattern. The girl is usually young, maybe late teens to early twenties. She clings to her boyfriend in an act of desperation as to show the female officers that she has been violated beyond belief. Her boyfriend tries to appear in control, confidently directing her to collect her baggage so they can move beyond security without making a bigger scene. And as if going for Oscar gold, she will try to mutter through how devastating the search was, omitting the part where her boyfriend violated the same areas just hours earlier with no complaint from either gender.
Men: After walking through the metal detector you will be waved forward by an officer who will conduct a physical search of your body. Arms out, feet spread apart, the search generally moves quickly and without much contact to “private parts”. There is little verbal communication. If the officer is curious about something, he will keep his hand in the area until the passenger gives an explanation or shows the item or area in question.
It doesn’t take much to extract a smile or the ubiquitous Indian head wobble from the male officers as long as you move swiftly while following all directions.
After the search, passengers are directed to collect their belongings and move toward the gate area. Carry-on security tags will be stamped by an officer at the end of the line.
What’s Different About India’s Airport Security?
Security within the US has moved more toward European and Indian standards with frequent body searches. Tourists from the USA or other western countries, who don’t travel often, may still be surprised at the sight of guns, separate gender lines, and the level of physical contact displayed by security officers. All other procedures are common screening techniques used worldwide.
at 10:35 am
Good article, thanks. One teenie-tiny quibble. We in the US have a Bill of Rights in our Constitution with a Fourth Amendment in it that is supposed to prevent this kind of thing without a warrant.
Now we all know that a Constitution is only as good as the people living under and we have a serious lack among our government in that respect.
As John Adams said “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Explains a lot about why why we are in trouble.
at 10:48 am
Patriot Act supersedes many of our former freedoms
at 12:24 pm
What kind of person compares a boyfriend making love to his wife/girlfriend with being prodded and groped by a stranger in a government uniform and finds them equivalent? Politeness prevents me from using the word that first comes to mind.
Secondly, I am not sure where you have got the idea that European airports have frequent body searches / gropes. This is not true. It is certainly nowhere near what you describe in Indian airports, nor what is currently in the USA. In Europe we have no patdown option but all go through naked body scanners and are only searched physically at the point where anomalies are detected.
Please research your facts, and refrain from falling into use of poor analogies, before writing any more articles on this topic.
Thank you.
at 12:34 pm
In addition, these naked scanners only came to Europe after they begun using them in America.
While security may have been a little tighter in Europe than America pre-9/11, what has been happening in America over the last few years is outshining that by a long way, only I fear that whatever has been going on there with the TSA will soon be standard practice the world over.
at 12:45 pm
Really? Suggested name calling is the response to reading sarcasm and satire about airport security in India?
I’ll remember to tell the security officer in Paris or Amsterdam that I shouldn’t be patted down next time I pass through their airports.
I thank you for reading Full Stop India.
at 12:15 pm
It is entirely appropriate to call out a comment for what it is, while my first feeling of derision was to you personally for making such a comment, I opted to aim my derision at the comment. I only let you know my initial reaction not to insult you but to highlight how very silly I think the comment was and that I do not think it reflected well on you to make such a comment. I think you should be prepared for that, writing publicly on a sensitive topic, and making deliberately insensitive remarks in it. If the comment was intended as satire/sarcasm it was not a very good example of it as it does not really convey a point in favour of anything. In logic it is known as a “category mistake”.
You could also have said a rape victim shouldn’t be distressed about a rape because her boyfriend touched her there hours earlier. Though a rape and an invasive pat-down are in no way equivalent, they both involve unwanted contact with the genitals and the reaction comes from the same place; neither can be compared to a loving touch from partner. I’m using this more extreme example to highlight how inappropriate the comparison is. The two situations are total opposites and the only point of commonality is the point of physical contact.
Anyway, Paris and Amsterdam is not Europe, it’s Paris and Amsterdam. I’m interested to know whether it was the airport’s policy to pat you down or the carrier’s and exactly how thorough it was (was “junk” touched at any time?).
Either way here are some other perspectives on European airport security that suggest a lighter touch is being employed in many European airports i.e. not as many pat downs (or none), and not as invasive as the USA.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/the-politics-of-a-european-pat-down-26572/
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/european-union/101125/airport-security-pat-down
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40318044/ns/travel-news/t/elsewhere-profiling-preferred-method-airport-security/ (half-way into article)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/1151832-how-do-new-tsa-pat-downs-compare-other-experiences-worldwide.html
The USA may have moved towards European security in the years immediately post 9/11 but moved quickly beyond it so this comparison is outdated by about 8-9 years (while Europe is now being threatened by the USA and some within the EU to catch up with the USA).
at 7:44 pm
Will all due respect Martin, the article is an accurate depiction of what to expect in India security. The sarcasm about female officers made me chuckle. Clearly, Chris has sense of humor about his experiences which makes it fun to read.
Chris – This website is one of a kind. I was born and raised in India and my wife is planning to make her first ever indian trip this year. I find this information very helpful. Thanks for all the work.
at 7:50 pm
Thanks for the comments. A first ever trip, how fun! I would love to hear her thoughts when she returns.
Safe travels, Chris
at 6:48 am
Chris, Thank you for this very informative information as I shall be travelling to Bangalore next month for holiday. I come from the Caribbean and live in the UK, but this will be my first time travelling to India. At least this pre-warns me what to expect! The bottom line is this, truthfullness, honesty, and courtesy goes a long way! At the end of the day security people are only doing their job in trying to make travelling a lot safer for all concerned. People will always find something to be critical about. Thank you for doing this.