WOMEN who were responsible for the imposition of prohibition on alcohol in the northern Indian state of Haryana eight months ago have had a change of heart, writes Rahul Bedi in New Delhi.
Succumbing to pressure from their hard drinking menfolk and also wishing to earn some extra cash, they have started smuggling liquor home from the neighbouring "wet" states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Police officials on the Haryana Delhi border said they were on the look out for "suspicious" women crossing into the dry state by bus, or walking with their handbags and blouses stuffed with liquor sachets.
They said hundreds of women were involved in running liquor into Haryana, daily earning around 300 rupees (£6) from various clients.
Prohibition was introduced in Haryana, well known for its desperate drinking, by Chief Minister Mr Bansi Lal last July, fulfilling an election promise he had made.
Mr Lal was responding to complaints by women that their husbands spent all their earnings on liquor and returned home drunk to thrash them and their children.
Anyone caught drinking by militant women on their nightly patrols across the city of Manipur was stripped, thrashed, tied atop a donkey and paraded through the streets with a blackened face and locked up for the night.
