Liquor ban heroine’s work is not yet done

Four years ago, men drinking in groups after sundown were a daily affair in Kothal Kurd village in Haryana. With this came stories of drunken men torturing their wives.

Updated on: Jul 11, 2009, 23:35:29 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Four years ago, men drinking in groups after sundown were a daily affair in Kothal Kurd village in Haryana. With this came stories of drunken men torturing their wives.

Today, there is a ban on drinking in public places and the
village folk are a happier lot.

The transformation was brought about by sarpanch (village head) Roshani Devi, who was felicitated by President Pratibha Patil on Saturday.

Roshani’s story was first published in HT on June 4.

In Rashtrapati Bhawan, the graduate Dalit sarpanch said woman’s empowerment was one of her primary objectives.

“I want to fight female foeticide, inadequate education for girls and dowry,” she said.

In 2005, Roshani, with the help of two other women, Usha Devi and Tripati — who, too, were felicitated on Saturday — banned drinking in public places. The idea was to stop the men from beating their wives and to provide money for the education of their children.

The twin objective couldn’t have been achieved without putting a check on drinking.

So, when Roshani and other women from the village enforced the ban, it was natural that resistance from the men followed. But they gave in later, when they were publicly reprimanded.

“We imposed fines on gatherings. It worked,” Roshani said.

HT had visited Kothal Khurd, in Mahendergarh district, 148 km west of Delhi, and witnessed how literate and semi-literate women were challenging men, who till a few days ago would abuse them. Many men admitted to having quit alcohol after Roshani’s movement.

Describing the three women as role models, the President said they have proved that if there is courage and dedication, nothing is difficult.

“Enhone Gandhji ka sapna pura kiya hai (they have fulfilled Mahatma Gandhi’s dream),” Patil said. And added that social rejuvenation could bring bigger changes than government spending.

“We need commitment and dedication of individuals and NGOs for that,” Patil said.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik — who complimented HT on the report — said that a film on Roshani was on the cards too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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