Women up in arms against wife-beaters in India

Patna: Women from a village in Bihar have launched an intensive campaign against suspected “wife-beaters”, beating the tormentors with brooms and sticks in full public view. Wife-beating is common in rural parts of the state, where the level of illiteracy is high among villagers.

The first-of-its-kind campaign was launched by women from Banauli village tucked away in Chenari block of Rohtas district, some 200 kilometres south-west of Patna.

They were alarmed at the repeated incidents of wives being beaten by their husbands when they were drunk. The worried women have formed a vigilante group nicknamed ‘Durga Vahini’ — after Hindu deity Durga who slays the evil and symbolises women power — to serve instant punishment on the wife-beaters.

“Men beating women have turned their life into a veritable hell, and thus we decided to punish the tormentors to stop this dirty practice then and there… this will come as a lesson to other tormentors as well,” said 45-year-old Prabhawati Devi who has founded a 150-member all-women vigilante group to end the practice of wife-beating in her village.

According to her, the vigilante group has also banned the consumption of liquor in the village, saying most incidents of wife-beating had taken place after men consumed liquor available in abundance, thanks to the new excise policy of the ruling Nitish Kumar government in Bihar.

Instant punishment

The vigilante group, armed with sweeping brooms and bamboo sticks, has been rushing to the victims and serving instant punishment on the tormentors with adequate doses of “broom treatment” and sit-ups in public. The accused also have to declare in public they will not touch liquor in future to get a pardon.

Around a dozen wife-beaters have been punished by the woman vigilante group since it was formed last week.

“Alcohol has ruined our lives and the future of our children,” said Lalita Devi, member of the group. According to her, most men work either as drivers and labourers and returned home drunk. “They are not only wasting the lion’s share of daily wages on drinking but also denying family members the right to survive. How long can we be mute spectators?” she said.

Daily ordeal

Until she joined the group, Munni Devi said she had to go through the daily ordeal of being beaten up by her husband Baleshwar Pasi when he was under the influence of liquor.

However, things took a turn for the worse for Pasi on Thursday when he began thrashing his wife and shouting invectives at her. “Hearing her cries, the group members rushed to the spot and gave him a severe beating. The maximum number of blows came from his wife,” said the group founder. Thanks to the “broom treatment”, Pasi is a “reformed” man now.

“They [vigilante group] are very dangerous…show least regard for wife-beaters,” said another “reformed” man Doma Ansari who was treated the same way.

The group members claimed that they were receiving threats from liquor mafias after they had banned the use of alcohol in the village as well as the entry of “drunkards”, but said they would not be cowed down.