Potent Punch

In Killedar’s village alone, women have got pulled down seven country liquor shops and matka dens since last week. They say 80 per cent of the men in the 2,000-strong village were regular consumers of alcohol. ‘‘We quit our daily work at home and in the fields and decided to give this problem priority,’’ says Parubai Mane. ‘‘We did not stop even at beating up drunks and garlanding them with chappals.’’

Next, they checked every comer to the village to ensure no alcohol was brought in. And they have warned politicians that not a single woman will cast her vote if they distributed liquor in election time.

Messa Belewadi’s lodestar is Alabad, a few km away, whose women have barred the establishment of a permit room or licensed country liquor shop for the past 12 years. Kasari village, located in the vicinity, has sought help from Messa Belewadi and Alabad to help them destroy liquor dens; several other villages in Kolhapur, including Washi, Nandyal and Bolaviwadi, have already done so.

Taking a leaf from the rural book, nearly 2,000 women stormed a liquor shop in the textile town of Ichalkaranji in Kolhapur district recently, and set its stock on fire. As in Ichalkaranji, in villages across southern Maharashtra, women frequently accuse the police of not cooperating with them in their battle against alcohol. But the police plead that they have restricted rights. Says Kolhapur SP R K Padmanabhan: ‘‘If any woman has a complaint against my department, they should approach me directly. But they do not have the right to attack and destroy licensed liquor shops.’’

Despite the SP’s words, liquor shop-owners are a worried lot today in the region. ‘‘Women are attacking illegal vends today, tomorrow they’ll attack licensed shops,’’ says Kolhapur Beer Bar Association secretary Amrith Desai. Coupled with the state government’s empowerment last year of gram sabhas and women in closing down licensed local liquor shops — gram sabhas only need to pass a resolution to this effect to shut down a shop; 50 per cent of women voters in a particular area can do the same — liquor traders are feeling rather abused.

Some of them even accuse politicians of exploiting the issue to secure votes. The NCP’s Ichalkaranji MP Nivedita Mane, while admitting she had not been contacted for support by any women’s group on the subject, says ‘‘what they are doing is justified’’. Kolhapur MP Sadashivrao Mandlik, too, has thrown in his lot with the anti-liquor lobby. After all, there’s no doubt which group packs the more potent punch here.