Life had changed for the better, say these women

Patna: The Patna high court's order annulling the Bihar prohibition law has upset a section of women on whose demand chief minister

Nitish

Kumar had made the election-year promise to ban liquor and fulfilled it after returning to power last year.

"We are feeling cheated. All our lives we saw poverty and domestic violence for our men would not shun alcohol. Our family life changed for the better after Nitish imposed prohibition, but now it seems our joy was temporary," said Manju Devi of 'Navjyoti', which has been actively opposing liquor shops in

Purnia

since 2014.

Shakuntala Devi, another anti-liquor crusader, from Purnia, said she was told that only India-made foreign liquor (IMFL) would be sold now. "Our menfolk will now spend more money to buy expensive

IMFL

... They will sell household items to meet the expenses," she said.

Chanda Devi

, who works as a domestic help in Patna, recalled her husband, a daily wager, tried to relocate to Delhi due to the prohibition. "But it is not easy to get a job in an unknown city. So he struggled to quit boozing. I took him to a doctor and cooked healthy food for him. We stopped quarrelling. I was happy with the CM's decision, but things seem to be back to square one," she said.

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