They wear pink saris and go after corrupt officials and boorish men with sticks and axes

The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials

the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor

They have also stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case.

sometimes we have to take the law in our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers," says Sampat Pal Devi

women bear the brunt of poverty and discrimination in Banda's highly caste-ridden, feudalistic and male dominated society. Dowry demands and domestic and sexual violence are common