Gopal Bhargava, the minister of social justice in Madhya Pradesh’s local government, handed over the “special gifts” to around 700 brides during a mass marriage ceremony organised by the local government this weekend.
Bat-shaped wooden paddles are traditionally used in Indian villages by women to rinse dirt out of clothes during washing.
“The idea behind supplying washing paddles is to boost the morale of women in their fight against social evils,” Bhargava told Xinhua in a telephone interview from Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh.
“Here we have a huge problem of men drinking liquor and then beating their wives. So providing bats to the newlywed brides is to encourage them to bridle their husbands.”
The foot-long wooden bats have messages written in Hindi reading: “Police won’t intervene” and “For use against drunkards”.
According to Bhargava, there were increasing incidents of domestic violence against women across Madhya Pradesh and the administration was doing little to control it.
“Here women are committing suicide because of domestic violence at the hands of alcoholic husbands and handing washing paddles is an act of providing them with self-defence,” Bhargava said.
“I think this will go a long way in bringing a social change in our state and, at the same time, it will highlight the plight of rural women.”
Mass weddings are organised in India to help couples from low-income families marry without having to pay for the event.
Eyewitnesses quoted Bhargava telling the brides to reason with their husbands first, and in case their spouses refused to listen, to “let the wooden paddles do the talking”.
The minister said the exercise should be seen as an effort towards “empowering” women. He said they would soon take a review of the “gifting bats exercise” to see its impact.
“I have distributed 10,000 bats so far during various such events and will be distributing more,” he said, adding that “there is no intention to instigate women to resort to violence, but to prevent violence at the hands of their drunkard husbands”.
Many Indian states have launched a campaign to ban or restrict the sale of alcohol in a bid to curb domestic violence.
Alcohol is completely banned in the western state of Gujarat, and northern eastern states of Manipur and Nagaland. It is also partially banned in a few other states.
Pledges to ban alcohol is popular among women voters. Last year, the Tamil Nadu government vowed to introduce liquor prohibition as part of its campaign to win re-election.