THE All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) successfully conducted a bus jatha across Telangana against the new Excise policy of the K Chandrashekar Rao government permitting wide sale of cheap liquor in the state. Strongly opposing the move, AIDWA took up statewide campaign and at the end, the government had to roll back its decision to sale cheap liquor through the State Beverages Corporation. The bus jatha went across the state from August 17 to 28, and group meetings and public rallies were held at village, mandal and division levels. The jatha started on August 17 at Pragathi Nagar with a huge public meeting.

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights former chairperson Santha Sinha inaugurated the jatha and addressed the public meeting. Hundreds of families are suffering due to consumption of liquor by their male members and it is a shame on the part of the government to introduce such a policy to boost revenue at the cost of poor families. She warned that the death due to consumption of liquor will also increase if such a policy was implemented in the state. Addressing the meeting, Telangana armed struggle leader and AIDWA patron Mallu Swarajyam said if the KCR government works against people, particularly the women, it will see the anger of the masses. AIDWA vise president T Jyothi said KCR had promised to make Telangana as a golden state but now he is trying to make it a liquor state.

AIDWA state president and secretary K N Ashalatha and B Hymavathi addressed the meeting, and said while the earlier government maintained one liquor shop for a population of 15,000, the present TRS government is making available one liquor shop for every 10,000 people. It is very shameful  on part of the government. The government says that to control sale of ‘gudumba’ (illegally brewed alcohol), it is introducing cheap liquor. If the government is willing to improve the health of the people it should control the prices of essential commodities, and not venture into cheap liquor. AIDWA state office-bearers Sarala, Rathnamala, Indira, Maheswari, Meena, Aruna Jyothi also attended in the public meeting, which witnessed participation of over 500 women. After the public meeting, Prof. Sinha and Mallu Swarajyam flagged off the jatha by unfurling AIDWA flag. Women welcomed the jatha overwhelmingly when it reached Jawahar Nagar and other places across the state.

Our

Experiences

As the jatha reached different areas, women narrated many miserable stories and how their sufferings are heightened by consumption of liquor by their husbands. In Warangal district, a man raped her daughter in an inebriated state. In Khammam district, a man sold the household gas cylinder for purchasing alcohol, while another sold a bag of rice for liquor. In Nalgonda district, a woman bought soap, toothpaste and other household items  and kept them in the house but her husband took these away and sold them to purchase liquor. Habituated drunkards are not leaving anything in the household and women are suffering a lot due to this. In Medak district, seven persons, after consuming liquor, raped a woman. In Vikarabad, a 55-year-woman was raped by five drunk men. The stories are unending and violence against women has been increasing every passing day. Hence, there was a big response from women throughout the state to this anti-liquor bus jatha.

During the jatha, public meetings were conducted in 44 constituencies in 10 districts. Another 42 meetings at mandal and village levels were held. The participation in these meetings varied from 200 to 1,000. The AIDWA campaign directly reached out to 50,000 members, and to lakhs of people indirectly through slogans, songs, pamphlets. One lakh pamphlets and 5,000 posters were distributed on the jatha route. People were very inspired by our songs and plays. Eight artists participated in the jatha. Local media brought the issue to people widely. There was a big response to the campaign among men, women, students intellectuals and political leaders.

At the culmination of the jatha on August 28, more than 2,000 people attended a public meeting despite heavy rain. AIDWA secretariat member Samina Afroz presided the meeting. AIDWA all-India general secretary Jagmati Sangwan, T Jyothi, D Indira, Prof. Visweswara Rao, Prof. Vasantha Kannabhiran, Ambati Laxman Rao, Cherukuri Group chairman Rama Rao, Prof. Vimala Muktha, TDP women's wing leader Shobha Rani, Rajamani from Mahila Satta, social activist  M S Lalitha and AIDWA president, secretaries of 10 districts participated and many others addressed the meeting. All the speakers warned that the agitation would be intensified across the state if the KCR government did not roll back its decision to introduce cheap liquor. Media widely covered the jatha and the public meetings, and mass organisations and all sections of people and various other groups supported our campaign.

OUR

VICTORY

Finally, the government was forced to roll back its decision and declare that it will not introduce cheap liquor. This was a momentous success of the AIDWA jatha. With support from various sections of people and organisations, we succeeded in this issue. Through this jatha programme, we learnt that with united and consistent struggles we can fight and succeed over the anti-people policies of the government. The main motto of the ruling parties is only to earn profits by neglecting the health conditions of the people, so we should remain alert and take up fight against the hazardous steps of the government. This bus jatha is a milestone of our struggles. (END)