Southern States
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Tamil Nadu
Women emancipation will be undone: SHGs
By V. Ganapathy
TIRUCHI, DEC. 6. Women activists and non-governmental organisations, working closely with self-help groups for women, have criticised the government decision to sell cheap liquor and felt that the move would jeopardise the beginning made in emancipation and empowerment of women, especially rural women. However, senior police officials heave a sigh of relief.
Mrs. N. Radha, Director, LEAD, Mrs. K. Subhadra, activist, and Mr. K. Subbaraman, Director, SCOPE, said the Government seemed to be worried more about the recent hooch deaths than on the long term disastrous effect on the youth. The Government seemed to find in the supply of cheap liquor a ready source of revenue to meet the severe financial crunch faced by it in recent months.
At the grama sabha and panchayat meetings, besides at self-help group sessions, women criticised not only the failure of authorities to curb illicit distillation and sale of arrack but connivance of the local police.
Liquor consumption was illegal, and this restrained the majority of the youth from taking to the habit, said Mrs. Radha. Now that the Government planned to sell liquor openly, it would get legal sanctity and more youth would take to the bottle.
The habit of saving, which had been nurtured with difficulty among women during the past one decade, would be put to test, since they would be forced to part with their meagre earnings for drinking by the male members of the family, she lamented.
The SHG movement was not just a means of helping people save for making investments but a powerful force to help woman realise her role in decision-making process, and running the family, said Mrs. Subhadra. If thousands of poor women of the SHGs were keen on sending their children to school in recent years, it was only because of the savings they made from their earnings. Sale of cheap liquor would slow down their bid for playing a keyrole in economic activities in rural areas, and in their all-round development.
The new-found strength of rural women through the SHGs in rural areas would be eroded by the new scheme, which would severely test their ability to save money, said Mr. Subbaraman. The failure of the authorities to check illicit distillation and hooch tragedies should not be used as an excuse for supply of cheap liquor in small sachets. All spadework done to help rural women come into their own would be undone, he added.
Senior police officials, however, believe that the new scheme would at least end the criticism from the public as well as administrators for their failure to enforce illicit manufacture and sale of arrack, and hooch tragedies at regular intervals. Senior officials were also relieved that the sale of liquor would free the department from charges of nepotism, corruption and connivance with bootleggers.
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