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No alcohol, no fighting and less expensive weddings

Fruit trees myriads of noisy cicadas and chirping birds surround the tranquil area of Madanpokhara in Palpa district. The MS media partner in the Western region is situated on top of a hill among organic coffee plantations. Community Radio Madanpokhara was established in 1999 and in 2000 the radio started a programme targeting the disadvantaged group of Dalits. ‘Utpidit Awaj’- the voice of Dalits – raises issues of interest for the marginalized and often discriminated people of the lower castes of Nepali society.

In the area just 3 km from the radio known as ‘Bade Aap’, a village group of 35 members are listening to Community Radio Madanpokhara regularly. In a small mud house in this place under ‘the big mango tree’, Rum Bahadur Nepali, Bhab Poudel and Vishnu Ruchal share their experiences as to how a programme discussing alcohol problems has changed their ways of life.

Rum Bahadur Nepali is 30 years, married and has two sons and one daughter. He works as a carpenter and that only gives him a couple of thousand rupees every month. Having a daughter he and his wife will have to spend a large sum of money when the time is ripe for her to marry. As the girl is 7 years old he has already started saving money for the big event. Two thousand rupees are set aside annually for the marriage which approximately will cost them 25,000 rupees.

But to Rum Bahadur the burden of paying for a wedding is not as big as it would have been some years ago. After hearing a broadcast on alcohol on ‘Utpidit Awaj’ his group has decided to decrease the wedding expenditures by abandoning the use of alcohol both in their everyday life and especially during weddings and ceremonies related to the death of a relative. In fact they have a management team of 11 persons who are supervising that the members do not break the rules. The consequence for not keeping your word is clear-- a fine of 100 rupees if you have an alcohol related fight in your home and 500 rupees for serving alcohol at a gathering.

“We now know that drinking alcohol is bad. It is expensive. It causes fighting between husbands and wives, and it has a bad effect on health,” he says. Before the decision was made there would be at least one episode of fighting in a week within the group, according to Rum Bahadur. And this fact is emphasized by Ranjit Ruchal, a young boy listening to the discussion: “I have seen many drunken men lie in the fields or at the road. But during this year I have not seen anyone.” The boy also mentions that 7 new children have joined his class during this school term - a decision made in the ‘Bade Aap’ group.

“We have made it compulsory for all members to send their children to school,” says Rum Bahadur.

To illustrate how things were before the community became aware of the negative sides of drinking alcohol Rum Bahadur´s own wedding 10 years ago cost 50,000 rupees. This amount included food, practical arrangements and a large quantity of liquor. Bhab Poudel whose daughter recently got married explains why they only spent half the sum of money: “We did not serve alcohol. Instead we provided better food for the guests and gave 10,000 in cash and presents to the groom’s household.”

But even though the ‘Bade Aap’ group has decided to cut down on wedding expenditures the tradition of having expensive celebrations within the Dalit community is still present. Telling the story of her sister-in-law, Vishnu Ruchal touches upon a very delicate issue. It is considered a burden for every family to have a girl child because she has to be married away, and live and work in the house of her husband. And being a widow with one son and one daughter, who cannot speak, she is facing heavy economic burden . She also notices that some of the men still like to have a glass of liquor in the evenings and some people still become unconscious due to heavy drinking.

The fact that everything is not ideal in ‘Bade Aap’ is acknowledged by her two fellow group members. But they choose to focus on the positive changes. As Rum Bahadur puts it: ‘Utpidit Awaj’ has taken up many of our issues and taught us a lot. Now husband and wives have friendly discussions and we send our children to school. After listening to a programme on sanitation I have also built a toilet for my family. Keeping the environment clean is important. We still spend a lot of money on weddings but we now give cash to the newly wed couples instead of spending lavishly.”