Bihar village bans women from using mobiles

A village panchayat in Bihar has prohibited women from using mobile phones and imposed heavy fines on them if they violated the diktat, an official said on Monday.

The self-styled social reformers of Sunderbadi village panchayat in Kochadham block of Kishanganj district issued the diktat on Sunday, the district official said.

“The villagers have issued an order to impose a fine of Rs.10,000 if a girl is found using a mobile phone, while a married woman will have to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 if found talking on a mobile outside her house,” the official said.

A senior police official at the police headquarters here said it was the first such diktat issued by a village panchayat in Bihar. “There is no precedent to such an order issued by a Bihar village panchayat,” the official said.

The Sunderbadi panchayat has also ordered women not to bathe on roadside.
“The decision was taken in a meeting attended by panchayat members and village elders,” Mohammad Manzoor Alam, who presided over the meeting, said on Monday.

‘Root cause of evil’

Alam said that the villagers, mostly elders, favoured imposing the ban. “Mobile phone is the cause of all evils in our society, including increasing love affairs and the incidents of elopement,” he claimed.

Kishanganj is a Muslim-dominated and one of the most backward districts of Bihar with 60 per cent of the population living below the poverty line.