How much can a city drink in a night? If it’s New Year’s Eve you’re talking about, Mumbai could knock back 3.71 lakh litres.
Raju Parulekar & Somendra Sharma
MUMBAI: How much can a city drink in one night? Well, if it’s New Year’s Eve you’re talking about, then Mumbai could knock back 3.71 lakh litres of alcohol. That is about 60 per cent more than the normal consumption for one night. But then, New Year’s Eve is all about excess.
On December 31, 2006, the island city consumed 15,000 litres of wine; the suburbs, a mere 2,046 litres. The latter seemed to prefer hard liquor, downing 57,511 litres as against the city’s 28,170 litres.
In fact, drinking patterns across the city show great differences in taste. The city drank 53,216 litres of beer while the suburbs consumed only 13,022. When it came to country liquor, the city drank 35,936 litres while the suburbs polished off 57,511 litres.
Mumbai also drank a good deal more in its enthusiasm for 2007 than it did on December 31, 2005, according to the state excise department’s figures.
In 2005, the city drank a mere 2.78 lakh litres, with the island city downing 23,200 litres of wine, 9,070 litres of foreign-made liquor, 15,000 litres of beer, and 10,000 litres of country liquor. The suburbs did their bit by consuming 1,500 litres of wine, 50,000 litres of foreign-made liquor, 90,000 litres of beer, and 80,000 litres of country liquor.
Harassed women don’t complain
MUMBAI: Last year, Mumbai’s New Year celebrations were trouble-free for women, if figures are to be believed. This year would have been the same, with nary an eve-teasing case making its way to police complaint books.
But police have taken suo moto notice of a report in the Mid-Day newspaper and have lodged a complaint against a group of men, who reportedly hustled and groped a woman at the Gateway of India and even tore her clothes.
The figures tell a pleasing tale, but according to police and women’s rights activists the truth is different. Harassment incidents are common, but victims rarely come forth to lodge complaints.
“No case of eve-teasing was registered with us last year as well as this year on December 31, though police are looking into the incident at the Gateway,” said Senior Inspector Anant Rane, who works in the main computer cell, which maintains crime statistics.
Police say women are too embarrassed to come forward. Lawyer and gender activist Flavia Agnes agrees but also blames the attitude of the police. “It is a sad fact that in most cases women do not come forward to register a complaint, but sometimes police do not have a favourable attitude. Also the conviction rate is very low.”
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