Rajasthan liquor shops hire minors for home deliveries
BIKANER: In north Rajasthan’s Bikaner, several schoolboys have a new pastime this vacation: to work as deliver boys for liquor vends.
The boys, most of them minors, ferry liquor bottles on bicycles to remote villages.
HT lens caught one such boy on Friday evening in 17 KYD village of Khajuwala sub-division.
The boy is seen carrying beer bottles on the carrier and front basket of a bicycle. The bicycle is a government gift to his sister.
Rajasthan government distributes bicycles, orange in colour, to schoolgirls who live within five kilometers of the school, to encourage enrolment in schools and to prevent drop-outs.
Education department officials said 2.95 lakh bicycles are to be distributed to girls across the state; 50,000 have already been distributed in 16 districts.
One bicycle costs ₹2,937 to the department. “I use my sister’s bicycle to deliver liquor and earn money,” said the 14-year-old boy caught on camera.
Locals said several such minor boys were engaged by liquor vends for delivery in remote areas.
Bikaner’s district supply officer OP Panwar said sale of liquor by children was a crime and he will take action if such instances are brought to his notice.
“We will look into the employment of children by liquor vends,” he told Hindustan Times.
Locals, however, allege that police and excise officials are well aware of the practice but seldom take action.
Purshottam Sarswat, vice president of Seemajan Kalyan Samiti told Hindustan Times that there are many schoolchildren involved in this kind of liquor distribution.
“We have raised this issue at different levels and recently through a written representation to the district collector in Ratri Choupal,” he said.