Anti –arrack movement

Anti –arrack movement means movement against alcoholism. An anti-

arrack movement was created in a remote village in Dubagunta, in
Andhra Pradesh in 1972. It began as a spontaneous movement of
women against alcoholism and agitated to force the closure of the
arrack (liquor) shop in the village in Nellore district and adopted by the
other districts of Andhra Pradesh. There was no organized leadership to
start with in the anti-arrack movement. Most of the groundwork was
done with local initiative, with women collectively protesting against
arrack in their villages. The movement resulted in the declaration of
total prohibition of liquor in Andhra Pradesh. But the prohibition on
arrack was withdrawn in 1994 as State wanted additional revenue. The
experience, however, gave the women new confidence and power to
check the alcohol abuse by men, and to prevent domestic violence. 

However, at present there are not less than five illegal arrack shops in
the village of Dubagunta. (July 2010) and some of the shops are run by
the persons who were agitating against arrack.