VOA常速英语2007年-Indian Women Win the Right to Tend Bar

By Steve Herman
Delhi
09 December 2007

India's Supreme¹ Court has struck down a 1914 law that prevented women from tending bar. The justices rejected the Delhi government's argument that women bartenders would find themselves in peril² at the hands of unruly male patrons. VOA correspondent Steve Herman reports from the Indian capital.

It has taken 93 years but India's women have finally won a spot behind the bar. The country's supreme court justices ruled that state laws barring female employees in bars and in restaurants where alcohol is served should be struck down as unconstitutional.

They took particular exception to the Delhi government's ban, which cited a need to protect women from drunken men.

Delhi and some other states adhered to the colonial era Punjab Excise³ Act of 1914 that deemed only men 25 years of age and older fit to be employed in bars.  The city's high court had struck down the act last year, prompting an appeal by the Delhi government to the Supreme Court. 

At one of the city's most prominent bars, Rick's in the Taj Mahal hotel, bartender Nitin Tewari is looking forward to working alongside women. He says he does not expect they will encounter any trouble, at least in the bars of the capital.

"The people who are living in Delhi are much more sophisticated," says Tewari. "They know how to react with the lady behind the bar. So they will give the proper respect to the ladies working behind the bar."

Sipping⁴ a beer at Rick's bar, Aditya Gupta, a young Mumbai businessman (who went to college at Stanford University in the U.S. state of California), says he is so accustomed to seeing women working in bars around the world he was not even aware there was a ban in India.

"The way India is moving I really don't think there should be a gender⁵ bias⁶ on anything. It just never made sense to me to actually ban women or prevent women from doing something," observed Gupta.

In its appeal the Delhi government argued that liquor is a factor in nearly all cases of domestic and sexual violence.

The court ruling on Thursday also lowers the age for bartenders to 21. At the moment, the legal drinking age in Delhi and many parts of the country is 25. The bartender age change is expected to herald⁷ a lowering of the legal drinking age as well.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

3 excise   

n.(国产)货物税；vt.切除，删去

参考例句：

• I'll excise the patient's burnt areas.我去切除病人烧坏的部分。
• Jordan's free trade zone free of import duty,excise tax and all other taxes.约旦的自由贸易区免收进口税、国内货物税及其它一切税收。

4 sipping   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
• She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

7 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。