For women, liquor just another trade

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 30

While the Bihar government, bowing to the popular demand from women, has banned liquor, in Punjab, more than 64 women entrepreneurs have emerged as key players in the lucrative liquor trade.

Though majority of the liquor trade in the state is controlled by the political class, 64 women have been successful in bagging the liquor trade rights in 23 districts, sub-divided into 78 excise zones.

Officials, however, point out that only around two dozen of these women are actively involved in the liquor trade, while the others are just the ones on whose names their relatives applied for the liquor vend draws.

In the Excise Policy for 2016-17, the state government expects to collect Rs 5,440 crore as against Rs 5,040 crore last year, an increase of Rs 400 crore.

The Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Excise), Neelam Chaudhary, says that as per the excise policy, anyone can apply for the liquor vends. “If women win in the draw, there is nothing much that can be done,” she adds. Chaudhary heads the excise wing of the department that solely looks after liquor sale in the state and checks violations if any.

Many women financers too have stakes in the liquor trade. In almost 16 excise zones, many companies have been formed with women as partners. “My husband was in the trade for almost a decade and after his death, I decided to join the money spinning industry. For six years, I earned good profits but with the senior political leaders directly getting involved, the profits are now very limited,” a woman trader says, wishing not to be named.

A debutante from Mohali says she joined the trade in her daughter’s name, while her husband is a stakeholder in Ludhiana. “We sold our ancestral property in Zirakpur and invested a major chunk of the returns in the liquor trade. However, the profits till now are not as high as we had expected,” she claims.

AS Mann, president of the Scientific Awareness and Social Welfare Forum (SAF), an NGO fighting against liquor consumption in Punjab, said, “Many of these women are mere rubber stamps while there are those earning profits in this trade. It is a worrying norm.”