India’s first female bartender

Witness History

In 1996, an Indian government minister said that the work of women serving in bars "is not suited in our Indian culture”.

There were protests and restrictions on women working in bars up until 2007 when a ruling lifted restrictions and saw female bartenders in India become headline news across the world.

Shatbhi Basu became known as India’s first female bartender and has been in the business since 1981. She tells Gill Kearsley her story.

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(Photo: Cocktails. Credit: Shcherbak Volodymyr via Getty images)