‘Why bar women for a man’s fault?’

NEW DELHI: It has been over a year since the Delhi High Court quashed Section 30 of the 92-year-old Punjab Excise Act, which prohibited women from serving alcohol in bars and restaurants. But with the judgment being challenged in the Supreme Court, the ban on women bartenders in Delhi continues.

The Delhi government recently argued that it was unsafe to allow women bartenders since ‘men cannot hold their drinks’. They further maintained that the behaviour of men in Delhi is not conducive to allowing women to continue as bartenders.

The contention has, however, thrown the issue up for debate. While there are people who claim that the ban curbs a woman’s right to work, there are those who believe that it is an escapist attitude resulting in ‘punishment’ to the woman for a man’s lapses. And then there’s also a section which has raised the issue of ethics, claiming that bartending as a profession outrages the modesty of a woman.

“If a woman is voluntarily entering the profession of bartending, she is most certainly aware of the pros and cons of her job. The notion that a woman can’t take care of herself is wrong. On the contrary, I feel it’s the man who should be checked for not being able to ‘hold his drink’,” says Manish Kumar Agrawal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north-west Delhi — a district known for a high rate of violence against women).

The Hotel Association of India, on whose writ petition the Delhi High Court had struck down Section 30 of the Punjab Excise Act, is of the belief that preventing employment of women in such activities was a violation of an individual’s fundamental rights.

However, noted women’s rights activist and a senior fellow at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, Madhu Kishwar believes that if the government really wanted to act, it should have restricted the mushrooming of bars and liquor shops. “Sexual harassment of women working as bartenders is inevitable. Bartending is like a job in a dance bar. The women working there know that men drink and drool over women. It is a high risk job,” she said.

“In India, the government works very hard to spread alcoholism by allowing the opening of bars and liquor shops in areas which are even devoid of proper water supply. If the government really wants to ban something, it should ban this mushrooming of bars,” she added.