The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Zafargadh widows fight a battle every day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 05, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Zafargadh widows fight a battle every day

Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao

ZAFARGADH (WARANGAL DT.): With tears rolling down, a Muslim woman, Pasha Bi (30) of Kunuru village spoke of her plight since the illicit liquor menace took the life of her husband. Ms Bi said ‘gudumba’ claimed the life of her husband at young age and she was deserted by one and all. She was forced to come out of the house to feed her three children. “It is not the question of hard work; I am unable to bear the discrimination a widow faces in the society. My own family members treat me differently,” she said. There were seven other widows who too lost their husbands to the gudumba menace in the village. On Sunday, the Lok Satta held a meeting to highlight the issue and launched its ‘padayatra’ demanding closure of belt shops and ‘gudumba brewing’ centres. The padayatra would cover 30 villages in Zafargadh, Station Ghanpur and Dharmasagar mandals before reaching the district Collectorate on November 6.

Recently, the Lok Satta Party took these young widows to the Collector K. Damayanthi who sanctioned milch animals to benefit these women. Mahila Satta convener and advocate B. Rama Devi thanking the Collector for her gesture argued that providing temporary solace to the women was not the solution. “We should work towards closing down belt shops and stopping brewing of illicit liquor.”

Lok Satta district convener Parcha Kodandarama Rao urged the people to question the public representatives and force them to use their offices to close all the belt shops. “When leaders come seeking votes, you should all sit together and decide what is good for the village. You should come up with your agenda such as closure of illegal liquor shops and stoppage of gudumba menace,” he explained. Scores of elderly persons and women expressed their happiness over Lok Satta taking up with issue. They said everybody hated the belt shops, but did not dare to fight them for fear of intimidation.

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