Did you know many Indians have a unique condition? That when it comes to catching flights at airports, particularly international ones, they are suddenly unable to walk. A CISF survey suggests approximately 12% of travelers from Indian airports taking international flights book wheelchairs.
Surely there are people with genuine mobility issues and need the wheelchair support. However, it is hard to believe that 12% of our population, or one in 8 Indians, is unable to walk.
Air India alone gets more than 100,000 wheelchair requests every month. Air India also mentioned that on some long-haul routes like India to New York or Chicago, some 30% of travelers book wheelchair assistance. That’s a whopping 80-100 wheelchair requests per flight!
Airlines and airport authorities have requested multiple times for people to not abuse the wheelchair assistance facility – which is free to book. This service is meant for people with genuine disabilities. The survey and airline data out there clearly suggests we are massively abusing the system. Indian travelers tend to do the same at international airports as well, which in turn spoils the reputation of India and Indians, and social media is full of posts that suggest the same.
Far from feeling ashamed about using a wheelchair when one doesn’t need one, many of these Indians see this as a hack, a bypassing of the system to navigate lengthy, complicated and crowded airports. An able-bodied human being is assigned to you, who will push you in the wheelchair, bypassing queues and helping you clear security, immigration and take you to the lounges and boarding gates, even as you browse the phone and watch reels and short videos. Wow, you really did figure out to game the system, didn’t you?
In fact this constant need to “game the system” is the psychology behind why Indians exhibit such behavior.
Airports are stressful everywhere, but in India they can be even more so, often due to poor design, archaic procedures and old equipment. We don’t have enough sub-terminals for drop-offs, so you walk kilometers to your gate. Our X-ray machines are so ancient that you have to remove every coin, wire, key, charger, emotional support battery, and possibly your soul from your bag. You unpack, repack, and unpack again—for sport.
Then come the rubber stamps. And the multiple boarding pass checks. And the same question asked five times by five different people.
At some point, you think: Why walk when I can roll?
Let the wheelchair guy do it – why should I bother is the mentality? Wheelchair assistance offers a clear, immediate benefit: priority movement through security, immigration, and boarding. For a traveler anxious about missing a flight or simply unwilling to endure discomfort, the wheelchair becomes a shortcut in an inefficient system.
Behavioral psychology calls this incentive-driven rationalization. When the cost of cheating is low, the benefit is high, and enforcement is weak, otherwise “moral” individuals may justify rule-bending as practical rather than unethical. Many passengers convince themselves that they are “temporarily unwell,” “deserving,” or merely “using what’s available.”
A deeper explanation lies in what psychologists describe as a scarcity mindset. Indian society, shaped by centuries of resource constraint, competition, and population pressure, often fosters the belief that opportunities are limited and must be seized aggressively. When systems feel unfair or overburdened, people are more likely to adopt zero-sum thinking: if I don’t take advantage, someone else will.
In such a mindset, abusing a wheelchair is not viewed as stealing from a disabled person, but as “beating the system.” The moral victim—the genuinely disabled traveler—becomes invisible, while the system itself is seen as the adversary.
In fact, we try to game or beat the system in other areas as well. Queue jumping, traffic violations such as ignoring signals or lanes, misuse of quota certificates, littering and vandalizing public property such as trains is all part of behavior we commonly see in India. In each case, the pattern is similar: weak enforcement, low shame, high personal gain.
This isn’t uniquely Indian behavior. Any overcrowded society with low trust and weak institutions demonstrates such behavior. India’s massive scale just amplifies it and makes it visible, now even on the global stage.
The real victims of the wheelchair scam – genuine people with disabilities, who will either not get wheelchairs, or will be seen by suspicion by airline staff who would lose all sense of empathy for such travellers.
As we modernize or infrastructure, there is a corresponding need to improve civic education as well. Breaking rules shouldn’t be cool. Following them well should be. As that cultural shift will take a while, we should meanwhile have heavy penalties for misuse of wheelchairs. Airports also need to simplify their procedures and modernize their equipment, some of which are dated and far behind other international airports. Queues have to move fast. There can be more golf cart shuttles for gates located far away.
And for those who frequently book wheel chairs but know deep down they don’t need to, please stop. Walk. Leave a good facility for people who need it – disabled people. Be grateful to God that your legs still work. Use them. Walk. Do your daily steps. It’s good for you anyway.