Mumbai: Women in Chandrapur and Yavatmal, Maharashtra, want the state government to ban liquor in their districts where they say families are being ruined by the high consumption of alcohol.
Despite thousands of women marching to the legislative assembly in Nagpur last winter to demand prohibition, "the government has turned a deaf ear to their pleas because of vested interests," Kishor Tiwari, representing a farmers' body, Vidarhbha Jan Andolan Samiti, told Gulf News from Nagpur by telephone.
He said a recent study indicated that liquor sales had gone up tenfold — from two million litres of liquor per annum in 2009 to 20 million litres in 2010.
The worst affected were tribal people who traditionally consumed liquor made from natural ingredients but had now reverted to country liquor made from "all kinds of toxic substances," the study revealed.
A survey conducted in the tribal village of Keljar, Chandrapur, revealed that 140 women in the village of 2,200 people had lost their husbands due to alcoholism. Even men wanted a ban on the sale of liquor.
Tiwari alleged the government was unwilling to ban alcohol because of revenue it generated but "more importantly, many top politicians in this state are distillery owners".
Despite thousands of women marching to the legislative assembly in Nagpur last winter to demand prohibition, "the government has turned a deaf ear to their pleas because of vested interests," Kishor Tiwari, representing a farmers' body, Vidarhbha Jan Andolan Samiti, told Gulf News from Nagpur by telephone.
He said a recent study indicated that liquor sales had gone up tenfold — from two million litres of liquor per annum in 2009 to 20 million litres in 2010.
The worst affected were tribal people who traditionally consumed liquor made from natural ingredients but had now reverted to country liquor made from "all kinds of toxic substances," the study revealed.
A survey conducted in the tribal village of Keljar, Chandrapur, revealed that 140 women in the village of 2,200 people had lost their husbands due to alcoholism. Even men wanted a ban on the sale of liquor.
Tiwari alleged the government was unwilling to ban alcohol because of revenue it generated but "more importantly, many top politicians in this state are distillery owners".
