Bihar's alcohol ban succeeds as village women take matters into their hands

Bandol, India

DOZENS of women brandishing brooms swooped down on a straw house in this village on a recent Saturday, sending the owner fleeing through a rice field as they seized buckets of fruit juice being fermented into a cheap liquor.

An hour's drive away, a group of village women followed the scent of alcohol to a cornfield to find vats of moonshine dug into the ground, which they guarded for several hours until the police arrived.