A spirited anti-liquor movement is sweeping across Murum and adjoining villages in Baramati taluka, 110 km from Pune. At the receiving end are men with a penchant for gulping a peg too many and resorting to wayward behaviour.Now, they know the consequences can be embarrassing. A sound thrashing and, in some cases, being stripped by the womenfolk in public.What occurred as a stray incident two weeks back at Murum — a village of 5,000 residents, mostly cane farmers and farm workers catering to the nearby Someshwar Sugar Co-operative — has become a successful formula for women in these villages.The measure has worked to good effect. All the five haath-bhattis in the village, a source of crude liquor for many, stand destroyed. The nuisance caused by drunkards too has gone down.At Murum, the women are planning to go a step ahead. ‘‘We will raise a Mahila Aaghadi which will provide self-employment avenues for women,’’ says Rupali Jagtap, who was at the forefront of the movement.In Wanewadi, the women are up in arms against a licensed country-liquor shop while at Karanje-Pool, the struggle is for overcoming vested interests to ensure implementation of a panchayat resolution seeking removal of another licensed shop. Not long back, things were different as the women at Murum will vouch for. ‘‘Every second dwelling had one member addicted to liquor,’’ says sarpanch Sujata Kadam. The consequences ranged from domestic unrest to harassment, with women getting beaten up almost everyday and suffering verbal tirades .
