Fair sex yet to blend in bars

The Supreme Court may have allowed women for bartending but bars in the Capital are yet to hear footfall of female professionals.

The fear of social stigma is seemingly preventing girls from getting into this area though several are showing interest.

“The impact is not so good. It’s a very different profession even for the males. It will take some time for females to take it as their career,” says Nischal Gurung, director, Cocktails and Dreams School of Bar and Beverage Management.

He feels that since bartending is still considered taboo, it requires a lot of awareness.

A handful of women, who have dared to flick the peg so far, are also still to shed the fear of social rejection.

“I am always chased for comments. I am fed up with this. Even my parents have started restricting me now,” says a girl bartender, who wishes complete anonymity.

Some of the bartending training institutes have been getting queries from the fair sex, including the housewives, but hardly any joins the course.

“Definitely, it’s good for the industry. Now we have been getting queries even from housewives who want to spare some time for bartending to earn money. But the law has just come. We can expect substantial proportion of female professionals in the next couple of years,” says Rahul Jelkie, director, Institute of Bar Operation and Management.

Bar owners, who have been expecting to prosper with more number of visitors since the abolition of legal restrictions, think female bartenders would always have an edge against their male counterparts.

“We are looking for female bartenders to attract our guests specially foreigners who come and stay for business and tours,” says Dhananjay Kumar, director, Food and Beverage at Claridges hotel

“Ladies would have much edge as compared to male bartenders because we have majority of male visitors who generally overlook mistakes made by female hosts,” he said.

Yet the training schools have been facing a tough time to fulfil the increasing demand of female bartenders.

“Lots of bars call up asking for female professionals.

Suddenly, the demand has increased but we have very less percentage of female students,” says Rahul Jelkie, who has currently three batches of 35 students at his institute.

Even if the bar owners have started hunting for skilled female bartenders, the male professionals seem to be complacent about any competition.

“Bartending is a technical job. Nowadays, we see almost equal number of male and female visitors in bars. So, there would be equal proportion of both the genders from host side too,” opines Sanjay Kumar of Vodka bar.

Security is also considered as another restricting factor for women, albeit the bar owner claim to have foolproof measures.

“Apart from short-circuit cameras which are already installed almost every corner, every hotels and bars hire bouncers and security guards only to ensure that the customers must not misbehave. Besides, the profile of the visitors is totally different,” Dhananjay added. — PTI