A lesson in sobriety
CHADUVU Velugu (Light of Knowledge), an adult literacy primer in Andhra Pradesh, contains a lesson entitled Adavallu Ekamaithe (If Women Unite). The lesson depicts the benefits of literacy and tells the story of how the Dubagunta women won their battle against alcoholism.
Adavallu Ekamaithe tells how the men of Dubagunta squandered their hard-earned wages on toddy and arrack and then sold or pawned whatever there was of value in the house. The drinking also drove the men to violence, abusing women, picking quarrels with them and slapping the children. Then, at the adult literacy classes, the Dubagunta women learnt of Seethamma, a woman who committed suicide because she couldn't get her husband to stop drinking arrack.
The women weighed who was responsible for Seethamma's death and decided it was the toddy and the arrack shops and they got them closed. The sarpanch and the village elders pleaded helplessness, but nonetheless, about 100 women got together the next day and stopped the toddy-transporting cart. They warned its owner not to enter the village again and made him empty the toddy in the fields. Each woman contributed a rupee to compensate for the loss.
Since that day, no toddy has entered the village. Once, when a Jeep carrying arrack was stopped, the driver returned with a police escort, saying he had won the auction and so had the right to sell arrack. The village women, however, would not let him. This year, no one even attended the arrack auction in the village.