343 women who had a headlong plunge into the illicit manufacturing and selling liquor or hariya roadside, are now living on a profession different from what they had.
The Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society has brought a new leaf in their lives under the aegis of the Phulo Jhano Ashirwad Yojna launched by the chief minister Hemant Soren on September 29, 2020.
Only this Saturday at the Darudeeh panchayat a migrant worker Chhatni Devi was offered a cheque for rupees 40,000 to start her poultry farm switching from sale for the illicit liquor, hariya etc during the Sarkar aap k dwar programme held there.
SDO sadar Rajesh Kumar Sah handed over her cheque as the lady promised not to return to this hariya daru business again. She told she had worked as a migrant worker in Punjab and she was in this illicit work since 2021.
Bimlesh Kumar Shukla Palamu district programme manager JSLPS said "We are making all concerted efforts to wean away women from selling hariya daru and enable them to start new respectable employment of their own choice."
Sources said sale of the illicit liquor is a cottage industry and there is no block in Palamu where this problem does not exist. Villages located near Bihar state take to illicit liquor
It is said "Where is Mahua tree, there is illicit liquor." And Palamu has around 10 lakhs of the Mahua trees and so illicit liquor is a very pervasive problem here.