Village women set liquor shop on fire

HUBLI: High spirits are a strict no-no in Kadampur village of Mundargi taluk in Gadag district. Anyone trying to quaff the brew or sell it will have to face a bevy of angry women who have forced liquor vendors to shut shop. They have also girded up to teach drunk brothers, husbands and other men a lesson.
In this village, liquor sales were on the rise for the past two years.Most of the men who work as daily wage labourers would drink away their earnings in the three shops selling liquor, including the illicit variety. It turned a social menace when drunk men would return home and quarrel with their womenfolk, who also had to put up with torture and harassment.
Fed up, the fiery women of the village found a way out: on Wednesday night, they torched a liquor shop which was run in a hut. Then they issued a strict warning to other liquor vendors to close shop or face ruin.
They also held a meeting with GP members and the men of the village, and placed their demands. Their efforts yielded results as all three shops have stopped selling liquor.
GP member Gangamma Patil said, “We will not allow anyone to sell liquor and have already asked police to keep watch in our village and take immediate action if anyone tries to open the liquor shops.” “My brother was addicted to liquor and was spending all his hard-earned money while his family starved. I have finally decided to close the shop and joined the group to fight against liquor,” said Ningamma Bagali, who ran one of the shops.
“Our men would abuse us and quarrel with us when we asked for money to run our households. So we decided to fight and closed the shops,” said Iramma Hosur, Basavva Agasar and other women.
The liquor menace wasn’t only the bane of families. Groups of men would also sit together and drink, pass lewd comments and hurl abuse at women, who were not safe after sunset. After putting up for years with drunk men and their habits, the women had approached owners of liquor shops, but the shop owners continued their business without bothering about their demands.
Rebuffed, more than 50 women of the village formed a group and showed them that woman power can bring change, even if it hasn’t moved mountains.