Development path is road to redemption for bootleggers

AHMEDABAD: Just before New Year’s Eve last year, city cops were busy hauling in everyone listed as bootleggers, including women with children. Ahmedabad’s police commissioner had ordered a crackdown on ‘listed bootleggers’, including detaining them and sending them to prison under PASA.
“On one such day, two girls walked into my office and told me their mother had been detained by police,” recounted A K Singh, city police commissioner.Singh was speaking at an event organized at Kubernagar police chowky on Wednesday to release a report on ‘Impact of Reform and Rehabilitation of Bootlegger Women of Chhara Community.’
The report had been prepared by PDPU faculty members and students by assessing city police’s Sakhi Sahay initiative, which was started by ACP Manjita Vanzara in collaboration with Arpita Vyas of Wings to Fly Foundation, three years ago.
“I was surprised to find the woman was listed as a bootlegger on city police records. I had signed the PASA order, after which she was to be sent to Rajkot prison,” Singh told the audience.
“I also saw the pictures of women and children in police custody that my colleagues posted on our WhatsApp group,” Singh said.
“It is wrong to brand a community or an area as criminal,” said Singh, who, along with PDPU director general T Kishen Kumar Reddy and Raksha Shakti University director general , Vikas Sahay, launched the report.
“In police parlance,” Singh said, “We have the term ‘listed bootleggers.’ But with projects like this, I have hope that we can ‘de-list’ both men and women listed as bootleggers.”
“Employment generation and getting opportunities is important for leaving the tenacious world of crime,” Singh said.
The premises of Kubernagar police chowky, where the event was held, is also used by the project team to make embroidery, handicrafts and other products. Senior officials of a beauty chain also participated in the event, as 10 girls from the community received certificates for completion of a course for beauticians.