'Didn't find regular queue': Fliers still confused about DigiYatra, reveals survey

DigiYatra, a biometric face scanning system, is still a grey area for several fliers in India.
Nearly 29% of fliers who signed up for the biometric system operational at 13 airports, said they did so unknowingly while 15% said they signed up because they could not find the regular queue, a survey by LocalCircles, a community platform, has found.

LocalCircles did the survey among fliers to understand their experiences of signing up for the programme and whether they felt "tricked or misled" into signing up. 

Of the 21,000 respondents, 62% were men while 38% of those surveyed were women. All terminals at Delhi Airport have DigiYatra boards prominently displayed with most entry gates reserved for 
passengers who have signed up for the facility. 

About 41% of respondents stated that they “have not signed up for DigiYatra yet and always found the regular queue”. 

A week earlier, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia issued a clarification stating that the consent of airline passengers is a prerequisite for capturing face biometric during kiosk-based registration and that Digi Yatra is not mandatory. 

He added that airport operators have been advised to sensitise Digi Buddies on the consent-taking process. The statement came after Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale flagged that he received complaints from passengers that they were forced to sign up for Digi Yatra across the airports in India, or that their biometrics were being taken without their consent.

According to the LocalCircles survey, 85% of fliers who flew out of the Delhi airport and surveyed said the Ministry of Civil Aviation and its affiliated organisations need to do an effective job of 
educating citizens on DigiYatra, the remaining 15% of those surveyed indicated that they were aware about risks and benefits of the DigiYatra scheme before they signed up for it.