On the side of a busy road cutting through Rajthal village in Haryana’s Hansi district, around 150 kilometres north-west of Delhi, stands a bright red-and-white banner tied to a yellow police barricade. In bold letters in Hindi, it reads, “Nasha ke khilaf gram panchayat Rajthal ka sakht sandesh [The strict message from the Rajthal gram panchayat (village council) against drug/substance abuse].” The warning below says: sell drugs in the village and pay ₹1 lakh; help a drug peddler get bail and pay another ₹1 lakh.

A few steps behind the barricade, men wearing white kurtas and turbans sit on red plastic chairs in a circle in the shade of a roadside tree. They are Rajthal’s round-the-clock thekri pehra (community-led vigil). Their job is to guard their village and the entire stretch against drugs.