Quick returns lure Kahars to liquor trade

And mind you, this mindset has not developed out of any community bias but by the very figures of Kahars involved in the prohibited trade. In fact, the number of Kahar-bootleggers booked under Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act (PASA) is more than one third of the total offenders booked under PASA for bootlegging. Many have about one dozen of bootlegging cases booked against them and classified as “dangerous” persons.

According to figures available with the Prevention of Crime Branch, Kahars alone account for 40 per cent of PASA convicts. A Panigate police station official says, more than 95 per cent of bootleggers apprehended in the area come from the Kahar community. “It seems to have become a family business”, says another official.

But why are Kahars into this trade? CPI activist Ashok Kahar argues that grinding poverty compared against higher and quick returns lures them into it. He says Kahars were brought from eastern Uttar Pradesh to provide services like carrying palanquins of the Gaekwads and their woman family members. However, with the fall of Gaekwads they lost their traditional jobs and plunged into acute poverty and penury.

Without training in any skill or trade on which they could fall back on during crisis, they took to whatever they could lay their hands on to earn a livelihood. While some took to working as security men in cinema halls, many got employed as musclemen by Jaiswals and Aggrawal for their lattha liquor dens, and still others took to fish business handled mostly by their womenfolk, according to Kahar. While working for liquor mafias, they learnt the tricks of the trade and were soon on their own. Jaiswals and Aggrawals were slowly elbowed out from this high-profit business, says Kahar.

However, police officials reject any justification for bootlegging. “If sections of a particular community can shift to legal trade and earn a living, why can’t they,” questions an official of Wadi police. However, he clarifies that unlike the community, Kahars lack religious leadership.

The money made by Kahars from liquor trade is not being repatriated for educational, social and economic promotion of their community members or their own family members, says professor Bhagwandas Kahar of the Department of Hindi, M S University. “It brings no cheers on their faces as they squander money on wasteful activities or on defending themselves in the court whenever caught by police”, he says.

However, both Ashokbhai and Bhagwandas differ in their approach towards economic reform of their community. While Ashokbhai and teacher-turned-activist Shankarbhai Gordia attribute it to lack of initiative by the government to uplift their economic status, Bhagwandas says the change has to come from within the community.