Women bootleggers turn jewelry artisans with Rajkot Police at help

By Darshan Trivedi, Rajkot

Kubaliyapara on the eastern bank of Aji River in Rajkot city is a slum pocket. A few days ago, a team of Thorala police station conducted raid and arrested a lady bootlegger with five liter of country liquor worth Rs 200 only. But while searching her house, the police team had mixed feelings. The lady`s husband was in bed. He was seriously ill. Her four children were crying for food. The woman’s attempt was to sell the Rs 200 worth of liquor to buy food and medicine for her family.

Assessing the situation, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Banno Joshi turned a little emotional. She decided to handle this case differently from the routine police ways. Now, the woman bootlegger is self-employed. She works for an imitation jewelry firm, molding beautiful bangles, hairpins and necklaces. Your imitation ornament may be the one made by this lady. After Rajkot city police approached the problem in a constructive way, almost 15 woman bootleggers have given up their illegal activity and have become self-employed.

ACP Joshi says, “We surveyed this slum area and identified woman bootleggers, who are breadwinners of their families. Some of them are widows, divorcees or whose husbands are in jail. Each of these women has been booked in more than 10 case of prohibition. We met and counselled them. After that, all agreed to abandon their illegal activity.”

Joshi further says that rehabilitating and reintroducing these women in the society was a big challenge. “We first decided to give them tailoring machines. But learning tailoring needs long training. Some factory-owners turned down our request to employ these women. As part of trust-building, our team took these women for training. We gave them vehicle. Initially, police constable Narendra Hoodad played the role of deliveryman. He supplied them row material and collected finished imitation jewelry. Now, these ladies are earning from Rs 6, 000 to Rs 9, 000 per month,” explains the ACP.

Ziluben Qureshi, who was facing eleven cases of prohibition, says she never wanted to do the illegal activity but her husband forced her into brewing and selling country-made liquor. “I always hated this dirty job. But having family responsibility, I had to do it. After moral support from police, I agreed to abandon the illegal activity and doing hard work for bread and butter. Now, we are a happy family. I see other side of police,” Qureshi said.

Satiben Bohkiya is also one of the 15 women. “Now, I realize importance of family and moral values. I am happy with what I get in proper way of earning. Employing shortcuts for making money made me notorious in society. Now I want to forget it all,” says Bohkiya.

Police sub-inspector Hemendra Dhadhal and his team regularly visit these groups and help solve problem if any.