The invisible victims of Pune’s Porsche crash

Migrant workers in the city’s bars and pubs have become jobless following government action against places serving liquor

Varsha Torgalkar

PUNE, Maharashtra: On May 19, the night a drunk 17-year-old driving a Porsche crashed it into a bike and killed two people, Bablu Shaikh’s life went off course.

The 23-year-old migrant, who was employed in the bar section of Planet 9, a restaurant in Bavdhan, lost his job in July after the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), in response to the nationwide indignation, cracked down on illegal pubs and bars in a massive demolition drive.

The job loss left Shaikh bereft of not only his monthly salary of Rs 12,000, but also the free meals and the restaurant-provided two-bedroom flat that he shared with nine or ten other colleagues. Left with no recourse, he returned to his hometown in West Bengal’s Nadia district.

“One rich kid in a drunken state crashed into a bike killing two people. He should be punished. Instead the government authorities are demolishing pubs and bars where poor people like me work. What was our fault?” Shaikh asked.

Shaikh’s family, consisting of his parents and two siblings, are landless labourers and daily-wage earners at construction sites in their home town. It was to avoid the rigorous physical work and poor wages at these sites that Shaikh, along with three friends, migrated to Pune about six years ago. He worked in several restaurants in the city over the years.

“But after Planet 9 shut down, I had to go back. There was no way I could have survived without a salary in a city like Pune. Now I am working as a construction labourer again in my village,” Shaikh told The Migration Story on the phone from his village.

Following the action by the PMC, the excise department and the Pune district magistrate, over 10,000 workers in pubs, bars and restaurants have lost their jobs due to either restaurant closure or capacity reduction, according to officials at Pune’s hotel association. Half of them are migrants from other parts of Maharashtra and India.

Government authorities have been in action mode since the May 19 Porsche crash, whose perpetrator drove the car after consuming alcohol at a pub in the upmarket suburb of Kalyani Nagar. Authorities heightened their action against pubs and bars after a video went viral of youth consuming drugs in the bathroom of another Pune pub on June 23.

Pune, primarily known as the Oxford of the East on account of its numerous colleges and universities, in later decades developed into an Information Technology hub. In addition to students, job seekers from across the state and the country flocked to it, resulting in a boom in the once-staid city’s hospitality industry, said Ajinkya Shinde, one of the founders of United Hospitality Association (UHA). Migrants from the state and country followed as job opportunities in this sector spiralled.

THE CRACKDOWN

A member of the United Hospitality Association (UHA) told The Migration Story that the number of retrenched workers could be much higher than 10,000.

“According to our information, 68 pubs and bars (of nearly 3000 in the city) have shut down following the PMC action,” he said. “One bar/pub has a staff of 100 or more. Thus, 6,800 to 7,500 people have lost their jobs. The remaining pubs and bars have reduced their capacity by 40 to 50 percent.”

The excise department has also revoked the legal license of many pubs and bars, which were serving alcohol in excess of what they had been permitted.

While bars and pubs were allowed to serve alcohol in dedicated ‘permit rooms’ to about a quarter of their total guests, most people prefer to have alcohol in open spaces and on rooftops. “So the footfall of guests has reduced, and pubs and bars have had to cut down their staff,” another UHA member said.

Half the workers in the hospitality industry are migrants from West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and the north-eastern states. They work as housekeepers, DJs, bouncers, waiters and bartenders in restaurants, pubs and bars.

“We know that many migrant workers have been working in this industry in Pune for five to 10 years,” said another UHA member. “Many have brought their families down to Pune. They have to pay EMIs, their kids go to school here. How will they survive without jobs?”

The excise department did not reply to queries over email and calls about the number of licensed bars and pubs, and how many licenses had been revoked.

The PMC, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority did not respond to the query of how many pubs and bars had been demolished fully or partially.

If the authorities reply, this story will be updated.

BACK TO FAILING FARMS

Dimple Singh, 28, lost his job when the excise department served notice on Thikana, a restaurant in Bhugaon, to stop serving liquor in its outer premises. The owner of the pub laid off all those working in the bar section, and Singh returned to Bhind, his village in Madhya Pradesh.

“I worked there as a bar manager, serving alcohol to guests for six years,” he said. “I had started my job at Rs 12,000 per month, and was earning over Rs 20,000 this year. After being sacked, I tried to find a job in Pune but failed to get one. Now I have come home to my parents, wife and kid. But I cannot afford to stay jobless for more than two or three weeks, as my savings have almost dried up. I am ready to accept any kind of job in any city.” Every day, Singh calls friends and agents in a bid to find work again.

Singh has two acres of farmland in his village but the family can cultivate crops only in the kharif season owing to water scarcity, a feature in many parts of rural India, where excessive water extraction and fickle rain that have eaten into farmer profits. Farming was no longer profitable, Singh said, which is why he completed a course in bartending and migrated to Pune. Now he is back working at his farm but finds it difficult.

The story of Nikhil Tonde, 32, is no different. Tonde was working as a restaurant manager at Planet 9 to serve guests and address their complaints. “We received a show cause notice which granted us one week to reply,” he said. But after two days, the PMC came with a bulldozer and razed the outer section of our restaurant without any warning. We requested them to allow us to call the owner but to no avail,” said Tonde.

Tonde said that over 100 people who worked at the restaurant lost their jobs. “So, around 500 people, including the family members of staffers, are facing problems now,” he said.

“I have returned to my village Nive in Pune’s Mulshi taluka and am looking for a job. Currently, I am working on our agricultural land. But that is not what I want to do in life.”

Tonde is hopeful that the restaurant will begin operations again and he will get his job back.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WORKERS’ LOSSES?

Kiran Moghe, a labour activist, said that the migrant labourers were victims of an apathetic system. “Employers verify every bit of information while hiring staffers,” she said. “But employees have no way to check whether these bars and pubs have all the certificates and licenses needed to run their businesses. They cannot even find out whether the establishment they work at is legal or illegal.”

Moghe added that the PMC, excise department and other concerned departments were taking action against bars and pubs only after the Porsche crash. “But till now, these businesses were running illegally,” she said. “Who is responsible for this? Only the poor workers have suffered losses here. The labour department does not have enough staff to inspect pubs, bars and other businesses to find out whether they are complying with all the rules on labour rights.”

The additional labour commissioner did not respond to this reporter’s call.

Meanwhile, Shaikh, hating his current work at a construction site, is hopeful that he will find a “decent job” soon.

Edited by Radha Rajadhyaksha

Varsha Torgalkar is an independent journalist based in Pune. She covers gender, social justice, climate crisis and travel.