Balurghat, June 17: Shedding their mould of suffering housewives, 30 tribal women took up cudgels against hooch dens and the tyranny of their husbands.

In a move that awed the administration and shocked their spouses back at their village, Jani Soren, Bimala Kisku and 28 others from a back–of-beyond area, Madargunj, stormed into the office of subdivisional officer Srikumar Chakraborty, more than 30 km away, demanding that he close down hooch dens that flourished in their hamlet.

They also pleaded with him to save their marriage, which was on the verge of collapse, because of their husbands’ addiction.

In the written complaint they placed before the subdivisional officer yesterday, they alleged that the police did nothing to prevent the sale of the illicit liquor though it was sold openly throughout the day. They also told him how they had to go hungry because of the killer addiction.

“The women told me how their husbands — rickshaw pullers, daily labourers and farmers — spent all their earnings to buy hooch. Though it was sad to hear their plight, it is nice to know they opened my eyes to the goings-on in the village,” Chakraborty said. “It must have taken immense courage to go against the wishes of their husbands and the hooch den owners and come all the way to town to demand justice.”

Though the women usually suffer silently on most occasions, the fact that their husbands forced their children to skip school and work for the family was not something the mothers would take lying down. Their tale of woes, an official said, would move anyone.

“They spoke of how they would be beaten up for protesting. For many it was a routine affair. One of the women said her husband had sold almost all the utensils to get the money to buy himself a drink,” he said.

Chakraborty said he went to their village last evening. “I spoke to the women who had come to me. Sadly, all the people who were named in their complaint had fled the village after they came to know the women had come to me.”

He also said he had intimated the excise department, informed the Kumargunj police station and ordered the block development officer to take necessary action against the persons.

“The guilty will not go unpunished,” he said.