Large placard at the entrance of an uptown discotheque
in South Delhi’s high profile GK-1 market boldly reads-
“SERVING LIQUOR TO ANYONE BELOW 25 YEARS OF AGE IS PUNISHABLE BY LAW”
It was early in the evening and keeping a tab on
the people entering the pub, was easy. In the first 10 minutes -17 entries on the register (majority of them looking like they wouldn’t have had a legal driving license), and no one bothers to enquire of their age or identity. An entry or cover-price is paid, a stamp on the wrist and they storm through the translucent door into the smoke filled pub, where liquor flows like water. Drinks tumble one-after the other over the counter and no one gives a damn whether the one drinking is 24, 20, 18 or even 16 years old.
One such regular pub-crawler, who did not want to be named, happened to be a ninth grader!! On being asked how teenagers where so easily served alcohol, he said “I myself get 4000 rupees from my dad, and mom gives me whatever I ask her for ; then who would refuse you services when you’re willing to pay....every one in my friend-circle drinks, so if ever denied entry into a pub, we can always have a bring -your-own-booze-party at one’s place.”
The college going crowd , with their ‘I-couldn’t-care-less’ attitude, walk right into any discotheque or pub without the slightest fear of being stopped or asked for identification. Varun Mahajan ,a college goer , marks that its more about you looking matured and possessing the confident air; and no one would dare stop you , even if you were fourteen!!
As for the pub owners, when a major fraction of your clientele happens to be college students and teenagers, you would not bother to deny them entry. The same holds good to every single lounge, bar, pub, discotheque and taverns and liquor stores in around capital. A bouncer at a Noida disco was quoted saying, “We can only control entry into the disc, and that cannot be denied to anyone. After entering if they were to be stopped from consuming alcohol, its the
floor manager’s job...” On being questioned , the bartender defended himself by saying that in the rush that their pub witnesses, expecting them to cater to the peak-hour demand and also keep a tab on the customer’s age was a sheer joke.
Very acceptable justification to their unwillingness to wring the golden goose’s neck ,that bears them exorbitant profits.
Then, where does the solution to such a mammoth problem lie?
Does the solution lie in parent’s cutting on their ward’s pocket-money, as excessive money does lure kids into experimenting with new things; or by parents keeping a tab on their child’s where-about every time??
While the first sounds good, the second will surely raise enormous fur-ore, as youngsters will have to compromise with their privacy and freedom. The most potent step would come if ‘Anti-drugs awareness’ was imparted at school and college level ; stories of addicts facing rehabilitation and the havoc drugs played in their lives; and that will deter many from taking to alcohol and drugs .