WARANGAL: She is 21, married three years ago, mother of a two-year-old son, pregnant and a widow. Nunavath Sumalatha is not an isolated case in the tribal habitat who lost her husband and livelihood at a very young age. There are many others sharing the same plight.The common line for the cause of agony is hooch for all the young widows living in Ramnagar thanda nestled in Khasimdevipet panchayat in Mulug mandal of Warangal district.While Sumalatha's husband became an alcoholic and hooch claimed his life, the storyline is no different in the case of other widows of the tribal hamlet.There are 40 widows in 75 families living in the thanda and the sad part is all of them are in the age group of 20-40 years. The saga dips into further gloom to note that there are hardly 20 men in the thanda who have crossed 40 years. The rest died, leaving behind widows, woes, debts and uncertainty. Illicit liquor, or gudumba as it is known in local slang, has been an integral part of the tribal lives; they brew, sell, consume, get harassed by excise cops, go to jail, put health at risk and die in early twenties leaving behind young widows to fend for themselves and their offspring. As they do not have other means of living they took to gudumba, while women brew it men sell it besides consuming.Recalls Sumlatha: "My husband was arrested by Excise police for selling gudumba. Cases were booked and he was sent to jail. After the release, since he had nothing else to do, he started selling gudumba and police took him away again. I had to raise loans to set him free and after his third jail term his health failed badly and he died at the age of 24.""Excise cops harass us a lot," says another young widow, Pittala Rajitha (28). "Besides taking away their monthly mamools, they book cases on us whenever they fall short of their target (in terms of cases) and send our people to jail."In an attempt to forget problems like harassment by cops and difficulty in paying bribes, tribals take to alcohol and die due failing health," says Ajmera Sitaram Ram Naik, a professor in Kakatiaya University.Naik, who is also the president of State Tribal Teachers' Association says, Excise cops are booking thousands of tribals and sending them to jail.Of the population of 270, there are hardly 20 men who have crossed 40, Naik, who conducted a survey, said."There are many such thandas in the district and other parts of Telangana. We are conducting a comprehensive survey and will send the final report to the Governor and the President in due course."Lambada tribe has been the most economically backward since years and neither the government welfare schemes nor the ITDA programmes had improved their lives, he said, adding that unless an alternative source of income is shown, the lifestyle of tribals cannot be changed."It is not enforcement and jail terms that the tribals need, they want reforms, he said.According to the data available with the Excise Department.
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