New Delhi: On Thursday morning, Dushyant, a lawyer and chief editor at News Central 24×7, took a poor child to China Fare restaurant in south Delhi’s posh Khan Market to feed him a meal. The restaurant’s manager, however, refused to let them sit. Reason? Other customers will have a problem.
The humiliated child, meanwhile, ran out of the restaurant.
Dushyant took to Twitter to share his experience and also posted a video of the manager, Veenu, who purportedly told him that other customers will object to a poor child eating at the restaurant.
Conflicting statements
Dushyant told ThePrint that he was walking on the streets of Khan Market and saw a child begging outside the China Fare restaurant and asking for food.
Dushyant said he took the child inside the restaurant and told the manager that he would sit with the child when he would eat.
The manager, however, contradicted Dushyant’s claims and told ThePrint that he barged into the restaurant and said he would pay for the child’s food and leave.
Dushyant, however, denied this.
“Of course, I am not going to leave a six-year-old child in the restaurant,” he said. “In fact, as I walked into the restaurant with the child, Veenu vehemently said that the child cannot sit in the restaurant. Actually, the child had also warned me that the people in the restaurant would shoo him away. And as Veenu said that the child can’t sit in the restaurant, he immediately ran out.”
Veenu claimed China Fare has previously allowed children begging on the streets to eat in the restaurant as other customers would pay for their meals, but some customers have raised objections to it.
“Customers say to us, ‘How can you let such people enter after looking at their faces?’. Also, these children eat with their hands instead of spoons and forks,” Veenu said.
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Not a one-off incident
This is not the first time that such an incident of discrimination has happened in the national capital. In the past too, Delhi restaurants have denied entry to people who “look poor”.
In January 2016, it was reported that chairperson of NGO Guild of Service Dr V. Mohini Giri was asked to leave when she entered a restaurant at the Delhi Gymkhana Club with her staffers. The club employees said “maids weren’t allowed”.
“I had taken the managerial staff of the Guild of Service for lunch to celebrate all the successful projects we had worked on last year. I was told in no uncertain terms that ‘maids’ were not allowed into the Chinese Room (the restaurant),” Dr Giri had said.
In June 2016, Dehradun resident Sonali Shetty came to Delhi’s Shiv Sagar restaurant in Janpath with her nine-year-old son to celebrate her husband’s birthday. The couple also decided to invite a few underprivileged children they met at a traffic signal to dinner. But, when they walked into the restaurant, they were allegedly denied entry. The restaurant staffers even allegedly manhandled and abused them.
Restaurant owner Vidur Kanodia had said at that time, “We do not discriminate against anybody, but we do not want anyone to create a scene inside the restaurant. The woman told my staff that we should feed the children for free because they are underprivileged, when we denied she created a scene. She was aggressive and misbehaved with our employee and that is why she was asked to leave.”
After the incident, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had ordered a sub-division magisterial probe into the matter, which found the restaurant guilty of refusing food to economically-deprived children.
However, a senior staff member of Shiv Sagar had said at that time, “We have CCTV footage that shows that the family and the children were allowed inside. The children, however, started creating ruckus. For the benefit of other customers, as a restaurateur I have the right to deny service to people who cause inconvenience to others.”
Violation of Article 15
Article 15(2)(a) of the Constitution states that no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and palaces of public entertainment.
Private restaurants in a public space, however, often misuse their right as private entity and violate the Constitution by denying entry to a person on the basis of their appearance or economic status.
‘I tweeted to highlight the problem’
Dushyant said he tweeted about the incident to raise awareness and highlight the problem.
“It is not me versus them. If the society sends out a clear message that this is not acceptable, it could make restaurants more sensitive and could bring in a change,” he told ThePrint.
Also read: Why Lutyens’ neighbourhoods like Khan Market are way more inclusive than you think
“One of the components of individual freedom is the right to private property. In a properly constituted state, property rights are clearly defined (meaning is it clear who owns what) and are enforced (meaning property disputes are adjudicated, and policed.) The owner of a property has the right to deny others its use. That’s the right to discriminate. It’s what you do when you prevent others from using your car or entering your home.”
Only if it is not Business. Once it is in business of selling , goods or services, the entity comes under all laws applicable, including Hygiene , non-discrimination etc. The only exception is if it is home based.
This is the place most frequented by journalists and politicians. How can allow beggars and street urchins to sit and eat with them?
Why is a six year old begging? Isn’t it the state’s responsibility to feed the kid? And if some Good Samaritan wants to be charitable, should other people have any problem? And what about discrimination? Lack of empathy is an attribute of people with slave mentality.
This is the place most frequented by journalists and politicians.
Are journalists privileged group.? They areas much citizens like beggars, street urchins, not more.