Meet UP’s Green Army: Women fighting violence, addiction and child marriage

On Sundays, women in green saris walk through villages in Uttar Pradesh, lathis in their hands. They look out for gambling, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and other problems they say have quietly become part of village life. Their arrival can be enough to make a gambling group scatter or a man drinking in public put away his bottle. They call themselves the Green Army.“Hum nari hain, koi aur nahi. Aurat hain, par kamzor nahi.” The words are almost a declaration of intent.But the lathis and green saris are only the most visible part of their story. The group was born out of the women’s own experiences of violence, alcoholism, poverty and helplessness.