Burhanpur: Mind your language if you wish to visit Borsar village in the Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh. One cuss word and you could end up paying a fine of Rs 500 or sweeping a street for one hour.
This village has declared itself the state’s first ‘abuse-free’ or ‘profanity-free’ village.
Villagers can now face a fine of Rs 500 or an hour of community service, such as cleaning village streets, if they are caught using offensive or derogatory words, as reported by PTI.
This village, home to a few thousand, has collectively committed to eliminating verbal abuse from daily life. The decision is driven by community consensus.
This unique initiative was led by Ashwin Patil, who returned to Borsar a few months ago after spending nearly 20 years in Mumbai. After returning, he noticed that small disagreements in the village often turned into bigger fights because of abusive language.
To address this, he proposed making the village “abuse-free” by introducing penalties like fines and community service. The idea was suppor
ted by the sarpanch and deputy sarpanch, and this led to the launch of the ‘Sanskar Kranti’ campaign, as reported by Hindustan Times.
“First we spoke to the panchayat, then spoke to the villagers then we collectively took this step,” Patil told the news agency.
“We have put up ‘abuse free’ banners and also got letters, signed by the panchayat, delivered to everyone,” he added.
According to him, a meeting was convened to explain the new rules and penalties to residents. Everyone was made aware of the behavioural code and agreed to follow it.
Monitoring committees have also been set up in each ward to keep watch and take action against those who violate them.
Change is already visible and the use of abusive language has dropped significantly, villagers said, especially among younger residents who were earlier exposed to such behaviour in everyday conversations.
“When we started, we used to get abused, now we don’t get abused by anyone. If someone abuses my mother or sister, they will have to spend Rs 500 or an hour cleaning the village,” a villager said.
The transformation has had a positive impact on both children and parents, another villager said. “It is very good now in our village. Abusing has stopped. The children and parents are happy. Earlier, children used to abuse a lot,” she said.
In 2024, a village in Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar district also banned abusive language, imposing a Rs 500 fine on violators.