Argues that overpopulation is not the real cause of poverty in India or…
Dry Days In Dobbagunta

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- Transcript
In a village in southern India, rural women enrolled in a national literacy program began to discuss domestic problems, the root of which was their husbands' addition to 'arak', the local alcohol. This was the beginning of an anti-liquor campaign that has spread across the entire state of Andhra Pradesh, empowering women.
'Express(es)...women's desire for independence, self-sufficiency and the important role of having a voice in the process of decision-making...Fast paced, yet informative... Geared toward the advanced high school student and above...Has a place in all video collections in the areas of Women's Studies, History, Sociology and Anthropology. Highly Recommended.' Belinda L. Robinson-Jones, MC Journal
Citation
Main credits
Basu, Nupur (film director)
Basu, Nupur (film producer)
Basu, Nupur (narrator)
Other credits
Camera, Navroze Contractor; editing, Reena Mohan.
Distributor subjects
Anthropology; Asian Studies; Developing World; Humanities; India; International Studies; Substance Abuse; Women's StudiesKeywords
WEBVTT
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[music]
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[music]
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[sil.]
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After suffering in silence
women in India\'s villages
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have begun to speak out. Learning to
read and write for the first time
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in their lives. They have begun to
question why there lives are so difficult?
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There family\'s so poor? And they are blaming
the government\'s policy on alcohol.
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[sil.]
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In rural India, where women go through a
daily struggle to feed their families,
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growing alcohol consumption by their
husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
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is having a devastating effect on the
local economy and people\'s health.
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The money their men spend on alcohol
is eating in to their meager earnings
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and even forcing them to send
their children out to work.
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25% of the hospital beds are occupied
by alcohol related diseases.
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If we spot this type of
drunkenness then lot of benefits
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may be possible, especially in the
spending one health. Actually the
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economics of prohibition
is clear cut profit.
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But they always keep saying that the government
has lost this much of revenue for people\'s sake.
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It is a propaganda against prohibition.
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[sil.]
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[sil.]
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The women\'s anti-liquor campaign
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started in 1991 in Andhra
Pradesh, another southern state.
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[sil.]
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Women from the remote village of
Dobbagunta, were into the first ten days
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of an adult literacy program, their
teacher read out a story about Sitamma.
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Who united the women in her village
to close down the local liquor shop.
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The story had an immediate effect.
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Inspired by Sitamma story,
60 year old Rojamma
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and her friends vowed to stop
liquor getting into there village.
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By 1992 their spontaneous struggle
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spread like wild fire across the state.
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By 1994, the grass roots movement
had setup political agenda,
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the demand for a total ban on
alcohol became an electoral issue.
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In January 1995, the Andhra
Pradesh government was forced
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to prohibit consumption of liquor.
Rather than being silenced, rural women
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had forced change. To date, the fate
of political parties rest largely
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in women\'s hands.