Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor recently starred in a biopic based on the life of Ashok Chakra awardee Neerja Bhanot, an air hostess, who was shot while saving the passengers from terrorists in the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 73 in 1986. After completing the movie, Sonam had claimed that her respect for air hostesses increased post ‘Neerja’. However, sadly, the profession still fails to garner the respect it deserves in the eyes of people. Behind the exotic travel destinations, prim and proper clothing, plastered smiles, flawless skin, perfectly manicured hands and the supposedly glitz and glamorous world of the air hostesses, there’s a world of enormous struggle, vigorous training sessions, difficult passengers, strenuous working hours, and endless fitness tests that often gets ignored.
The extensive training programme involves full-day fire drills, mock evacuations, mimicking emergency landings, first-aid training and arduous theoretical exams as well. Swati Sharma, working as an air hostess with one of the renowned Asian airlines says, “We’re given a big-fat manual of safety and first-aid instructions that needs to be learned by heart. Though, we’re not trained to become doctors but the prying eyes are on us when it’s a matter of life and death on board.”
Sonam Kapoor admitted the importance of safety training at a promotional event for her movie ‘Neerja’. She was heard saying, “I realized that 60 per cent of the training is for safety and emergency. There is a hijack training, safety training and being in the service industry, you really feel that you have a duty towards your clients and guests.”
Besides getting trained for emergency situations, Swati also talks about the yearly refresher courses and medical tests that every air hostess needs to undergo in order to carry forward in the profession. “Basically, we’ve to prove each year that we’re fit for being air hostesses, unlike getting a one-time degree,” she adds.
Rhythm Kapoor, another air hostess, working with a well-known international airline adds, “Apart from being physically and mentally strong, we are supposed to take special care of our skin and body weight. I’ve heard of incidents where air hostesses were grounded for having acne on their face.” While the requirement for becoming an air hostess is no less than that of an aspiring model/actress, yet the job is not as glamorous as it sounds.
They’re often called ‘glorified ayahs’ and, Rhythm reveals that some of the passengers actually treat them as their domestic servants, especially the Indian ones. She further discloses that there have been cases where first-time travellers from lower strata of society have actually peed on their seats, unaware of how to use airplane toilets, and without any remorse as they expect the so-called ‘ayahs’ to clean up their mess. Besides this, passengers have no qualms in venting out their anger on the air hostesses every now and then, even for a trivial matter of a desired food item not being available on the menu.
If this wasn’t enough, there have also been incidents where passengers have misbehaved with the air hostesses expecting them to “sleep with them.” Nidhi Arora, an air hostess with a domestic airline reveals, “Once a passenger held me by my skirt (well, that was his way of calling me) and later, he made an indecent proposal to me in front of hundred-odd people, some 40,000 ft above the sea level! Ironically, even after all this, I had to snub him politely because we are trained not to be rude.”
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Rhythm Kapoor stresses that the airlines’ policy on sexual harassment cases has become more stringent over the years. Now, the airlines regularly send out emails to the employees on how they can raise their voice when such an incident occurs and how the air hostess can alert the captain, who in turn, will alert the air traffic controller to take the accused passenger in police custody as soon as they land.
Delhi-based life coach Ramon Llamba explains the mindset behind the uncouth behaviour of passengers, “Human psychology is such that they love to exercise control and this fuels their emotional needs. When people pay for a flight, they feel they have actually bought the rights to own that particular space, including the flight attendants, and hence that’s one area where they become superior and exercise control.” Talking of the effect of misbehaviour on air hostesses, the psychiatrist says, "Any kind of misbehaviour leaves a dent on a person’s personality, “This tampers the self-confidence and the ability to perform suffers, making them scarred for a lifetime in certain cases.” She wants people to understand that buying an airplane ticket doesn’t give them the right to own the people associated with it and urges the passengers to be more compassionate and humane towards the flight attendants.
Paradoxically, despite all this, the profession is looked down upon on several occasions and the misconceptions, vices associated with it are deeply etched in the minds of people, which perhaps will take some more generations to fade away.
(Some names have been changed upon request)