This UP Village Has Acquired The Name Of 'Widows' Village' After Losing Lives To Spurious Liquor

As one enters the nondescript village of Pusaina in Mainpuri district, two things are unmistakably evident -- a musty stench in the air and a large number of women without sindoor.

They are those who have lost their husbands to hooch, the noxious alcoholic concoction that sometimes comes mixed with deadly urea, battery fluid and chemicals for an instant and extra high. Pusaina itself has notoriously acquired the name of ¡®Widows¡¯ Village¡¯.

While recent hooch tragedies in the two adjoining states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which claimed over 100 lives, are in the news, the deaths are so frequent in this village -- where manufacture and consumption of illicit liquor is very common -- that people hardly react to news of another one going down to the killer brew.

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Pusaina, on the bank of the Ishan river, has a population of around 4,008 in about 300 families. Almost 150 families have widows in the age group of 25 to 65 years, whose husbands have died after consuming spurious liquor in the last 15 years. Many have even lost more than one male member.

The widows find it difficult to meet the expenses of their families, what with no male earning member alive. But what is ironical is that the women continue to suffer in silence due to the terror of bootleggers and smugglers involved in the illicit trade.

When a TOI team visited the village, the women were so scared that they initially even refused to speak to this correspondent. ¡°If we speak to you, then tomorrow we will have to face the consequences for it,¡± said Neksi Devi, 45, a widow herself. She not only lost her husband but four children, between 18-24 years of age, to hooch some years ago.

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Another widow, Sunila Devi, 35, who has four daughters between 12-19 years, told TOI that her husband Rajendra Kumar, who worked as an agricultural labourer, died five years ago at the age of 40 "from the same curse". She said, ¡°Liquor has destroyed my family. Now, I am living a hand-to-mouth existence. My daughters are very young. I can¡¯t even send them out for work.¡±

The pradhan of the village, Rajesh Kumar, said that though the hooch business here has declined in the recent past, it is still being manufactured on the banks of the river. ¡°I had tried to stop this trade in our village after many deaths were reported, but mafias are well-connected and they threatened me with dire consequences if I did not stay out of their way,¡± said Kumar, a Dalit, adding that people from Lodhi, Rajput and Beemar castes are usually involved in this trade.

Kumar said that many of the widows are also being forced to become a part of this bootlegging business, as they have no other sources of income. He admitted that even the children of some are active in the trade.

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¡°In fact, we have seen kids in the age group of 10-12 years entering the illegal hooch trade. After some time they become consumers too,¡± Kumar said, adding that the Rs 10-pouch of illicit liquor has become a ¡®medium of exchange¡¯ with some people bartering these with children and adults as salary. He said he had seen little boys and girls being given these pouches by local shopkeepers for running their errands.

According to local residents, around 10,000-12,000 litres of liquor is manufactured and sold in the area every day, despite the police claiming to have cracked down on the trade. Of these, 600-700 litres is manufactured in Pusaina village alone right under the nose of police and excise department, alleged villagers.

¡°Usually 60-80 litres of liquor are consumed by villagers per day and the remaining is supplied to nearby villages and adjoining districts,¡± said a local resident on the condition of anonymity. He said that ¡®Pusaina-made liquor¡¯ is famous in the neighbourhood due to the mixing of urea in jaggery and yeast to ¡°guarantee¡± a strong kick.

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¡°A rehabilitation programme should be introduced in the village to end the liquor business, which has ruined many families. The widows should be provided benefit of government schemes, but nothing has been done,¡± said Aradhna Gupta, social worker and member of Bal Kalyan Samiti, Mainpuri.

¡°I have conducted multiple campaigns here and women have supported me, but due to fear of the liquor mafias and other powerful people involved in the trade, they don¡¯t speak out,¡± Gupta said, adding that other villages, including Etora, Bichwa, Nabada, Bajhera and Bilsada nearby also face the problem.

Mainpuri superintendent of police Ajay Shankar Rai said, ¡°We have been making sincere efforts to destroy the illegal liquor business in the district. We have seized property worth Rs 11 crore from some kingpins of the liquor mafia. Our raiding parties usually destroy illegal liquor-making units, but some mafia members manage to rebuild them.¡±