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Advanc'edge MBA / September 2003

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Alcohol Prohibition in India


A Success or a Failure?
- Gaurang Shah

The Legal Position Prohibition over the past 50 years


Alcohol prohibition is under the control of each The use of prohibition in India has a long history.
state and the central government has little control Gujarat, declared prohibition soon after the British
over it except on customs left and has stuck to this policy ever since.
duties for imported alcohol. Post independence, in the 1950s, the prohibition
Each state has full control of movement grew from the emphasis placed on
alcohol legislation, state abstinence by Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our
excise duty rates and the Nation - an ideology that still underlies much of
organisation (control and alcohol policy in the contemporary period. By the mid
records of movement) of 1960s this trend had stemmed with several states
production and sale of alcohol. There is thus lifting prohibition orders until the 1970s when
significant variation in prohibition across states and prohibition did not exist in any state except Gujarat.
over time within states. More recently, however, prohibition became a major
vote winner in the
Three Degrees of Prohibition states of Andhra
Prohibition legislation is more or less consistent Pradesh and
in its mandate across states and over time. There are Haryana.
three main types of prohibition policy: Since trade
4 Complete prohibition of production and liberalisation in
consumption; 1992/93, controls
4 Partial prohibition where one or more type of on imports of
liquor (usually arrack) is prohibited; and foreign FMCG
4 Dry days where consumption is prohibited for (including alcohol)
certain days of the week or month. and consumer durables were progressively relaxed,
It is interesting to note that Gujarat - the birthplace the central and state government attitudes to alcohol
of Mahatma Gandhi - is also the only state to have changed dramatically. Gradually previous
had complete prohibition since Independence. restrictions on consumption and production moved
In the last two decades, complete prohibition on to be more relaxed.
policies have been concentrated in the North Eastern At the same time social taboos associated with
states where there is a high incidence of alcohol and consumption within the urban middle-class
substance abuse and strong anti-liquor lobby groups. decreased dramatically. What was earlier considered
Partial prohibition (of arrack) has been the main to be an unforgivable vice was slowly becoming
policy choice of the Southern states of Tamil Nadu, socially acceptable and even a virtue in some cases.
Kerala and Andhra Pradesh where much country
liquor is distilled. In fact, prohibition legislation Evils of Alcohol
across most states is very similar in terms of its extent The prohibitionists have focused on the harmful
and the penalties it imposes on the production and effects of alcohol. Pro-ban lobby quotes medical
consumption of prohibited liquor items. reports and the anti-ban lobby pleads on using
In addition to complete prohibition, some states lawyers who are paid obscene sums of money. In the
in some periods have enacted prohibition of selected midst of all this heat and fury, the real issues seem to
alcohol items, notably arrack. have dissipated. There is no doubt that alcohol (or
any tobacco product) is harmful to health. None other
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than handsomely paid lawyers Haryana with a large majority.


can truly defend alcohol. However, this happens to be just another populist
Incidentally alcohol abuse is vote taking and shortsighted policy. It initiated
one of the main killers of massive problems for the government treasuries and
young men in India today. But caused further hardships for the poor by increasing
its real impact perpetrates unemployment. State excise raised from potable
further on the social and alcohol is approximately 20-25% of state-revenue.
family dynamics shaking the Take the case of Andhra Pradesh. When alcohol
very foundations on which our breweries were shut, it resulted in the loss of
communities are based. hundreds of legitimate jobs. The state went virtually
No one can quarrel with the broad aims of total bankrupt. The government attempted to counter the
prohibition — to make sure that all citizens remain budgetary deficit by raising taxes and the costs of
sober at all times, so no one gets drunk, or becomes earlier subsidised rice, the staple food of millions of
unruly; husbands stop beating their wives, work Indians. Despite this, the deficit continued to spiral
productively, raise happy families, tell bedtime out of control reaching a third of the annual budget
stories to their children and help out with the outlay. Finally, the Reserve Bank of India threatened
washingJ. to withdraw the overdraft facility to the state. The
Alcohol consumption is sex specific: most alcohol government then relented and introduced the AP
drinkers are men and quite naturally, the opposite Prohibition Act 1997, which effectively removed
sex; has identified alcoholism in their families as prohibition in favour of a more regulated alcohol
being a potentially preventable cause of poverty and retailing system.
abuse. Domestic violence and an exacerbation o f The experience of Haryana is the most striking
poverty have made alcohol misuse the single most example where, after two and a half years of complete
important problem for women in India. A recent prohibition between 1996 and 1998, the state treasury
study in Goa showed that women attending primary went practically bankrupt.
care clinics were more likely to cite a drinking relative The end result is that at present there are only 7
as a key problem in their homes, problems with states left with complete prohibition in force and 3
making ends meet and to suffer from a depressive or with bans on production and consumption of arrack.
anxiety disorder. Alcohol misuse has become such an
enormous problem that it is now one of the main The Actual Experience
issues on which elections are being fought and won. The issue then is, not whether alcohol should be
consumed or not but rather the feasibility of imposing
Women’s Movements a ban. Has prohibition made any difference to the
Over the past 20 years women have become an real problem - drinking among men?
increasingly potent electoral force. Women’s NGOs There is a long history of banning, prohibiting or
and the current trend of Network Marketing have restricting the sale and consumption of products
successfully mobilised millions of women to become harmful to human beings. Prohibition on liquor was
financially independent. Opportunistic tried in USA in the first quarter of last
politicians, who identified them as a vote century. It is now an accepted fact that
bank, quickly capitalised on this trend. prohibition has failed miserably
Political parties of all hues have thrown wherever it has been tried. Prohibition
caution and hindsight to the winds and in USA led to the rise of mafia that soon
made prohibition their prime electoral began to challenge the legitimate
promise. The Telegu Desam party used government.
this ploy to bag 224 out of 294 seats in During the days of prohibition,
Andhra Pradesh. Subsequently, the honeymooning American couples went
party, which put prohibition at the top to hotels at the Niagara Falls. Reason: On
of its agenda, won the elections in the other side of the river was Canada,
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where they could buy all the alcohol they wanted underworld and politicians, bureaucrats and police
openly. Canada was paradise simply because it had officers has been the result. It is this nexus that has
no prohibition. been most vehemently opposing lifting of prohibition
Just as during late 1950’s, Morarji Desai’s term of in Gujarat. Isn’t it ironical that women’s movements
Chief Minister of Bombay, Daman, only a few hours’ have been indirectly supporting this unholy nexus?
drive from Bombay, had become a thriving tourist Under prohibition, an average consumer is put
centre. In those days, Daman was Portuguese through much more hardship and pays much more
territory and thus, for prohibition-afflicted Bombay, for a bottle of liquor. Normally, liquor contributes
a paradise. the maximum revenue to state exchequer.
If Gujarat is anything to go by, prohibition is a Government earns no revenue from the sale of liquor.
complete failure. Not only is alcohol readily available The revenue
to the rich, but also the poor now have to resort to amount (actually a
illegal brews, with a consequent rise in criminal higher amount)
activity and deaths from methanol poisoning. now flows to the
Prohibition in India is the Emperor’s Clothes, by mafia and its
another name, a great pretence. Police inspectors and patrons in the state
DCPs who ordered raids on hotels and residences machinery. In other
while drink parties were in progress because they had words, prohibition
not been paid hefty haftas despite having paid licence helps growth of
fees. Policemen who do not themselves drink are rare. crime and weakens
Many of the ministers of states, which still have the legitimate
prohibition, are themselves drinkers, and simply institutions of the
having one of them at your party is an insurance state.
against being raided. It has been
demonstrated time
The Unintended Consequences and again that
Let us also look at the machinery, supposed to prohibition does not lead to a substantial reduction
enforce the ban. In states like Madhya Pradesh and in alcohol consumption. In recent years Haryana
Uttar Pradesh, a large number of cabinet ministers experimented with prohibition. The experiment was
are addicted to alcohol. A significantly large number an utter failure. After the lifting of prohibition in
(by some estimates it is a majority) of policemen, Haryana, liquor consumption has increased to a level
lawyers, court officials and government employees higher than that of pre-prohibition days. Instead of
are seen with swollen eyes and puffed faces. Almost making people give up drinking alcohol or even
every government office has such people in encouraging temperance, it somehow has the
abundance. Is it not ridiculous to imagine that such opposite effect.
hopeless addicts will be able to prevent others from In a social order in which everyone who takes a
falling prey to the habit? drink becomes a criminal, even normally well-
Even in India, the liquor trade has slowly but behaved citizens lose all respect for the law.
steadily moved from the hands of normal Prohibition opens up a whole new Pandora’s box of
businessmen to the clutches of organised criminals evils and absurdities.
in every state where prohibition was tried. The
underworld has discovered a perennial source of easy What does not work?
money. Certain specific communities who work hand If prohibition legislation is no answer to alcohol
in glove with the underworld now control most of abuse, will price control work?
the liquor trade. The law enforcing machinery has Denmark tried to ensure this by making alcohol
also found it a lucrative opportunity where they make too expensive for the man in the street. But then the
huge piles of money by just looking the other way. man in the street is also a born survivor, never to be
Development of an unholy nexus between the deterred by artificial barriers. So the Danes daily go
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on what are called ‘Spirit Ships’, which, drinking and driving, and
within forty minutes take them out into w the provision of peer education on
international waters, and there, of drinking behaviour in colleges and
course, all drinks and cigarettes are schools.
duty free. Secondary prevention would enable
the reduction of the effects of problem
What may work? drinking post problem identification in
Contrast the failures of experiments an individual. Counsellors could work
in prohibition with the successes of with other organisations, such as
anti-smoking campaign carried out across the world Alcoholics Anonymous and the Indian Psychiatric
for the past three decades. Four decades back, Association, in a united campaign to help families
smoking was fashionable, cool and the in-thing. affected by problem drinking.
Almost every movie whether made in Hollywood or The policy of prohibition is at odds with an
Bollywood showed the main lead male star smoking. essential ingredient of any community health
Things have changed almost completely for the programme namely, its participatory approach. By
smokers. Films no longer show the hero with a identifying drinking in men as the problem, the
cigarette on his lips. Smokers are not welcome at most current approach alienates and excludes them from
social gatherings. A smoker has to typically hide participating in the solution. Bar owners and alcohol
himself in a toilet or go out into the street to have a manufacturers, usually men, see their livelihood
puff. Sales of cigarette companies have been falling destroyed and, instead of empathising with women,
in most countries across the world. Three decades feel threatened.
ago more than half the students on the campuses Women’s efforts in their vociferous support for
smoked. Now this figure is less than ten per cent. All prohibition are admirable, but women’s groups
this has been achieved without any punitive should remember that it would always be the poor
measures or restrictions on manufacture, sale or who will suffer due to prohibition.
consumption of cigarettes. A community based, participatory public health
In fact, the setbacks in the anti-smoking campaign model to tackle alcohol misuse is the only way to
have been in only those areas where harsh prohibitive reduce the negative impact of problem drinking while
measures were attempted. An example is the recent safeguarding the economic benefits of alcohol,
ban, following Supreme Court directives, on smoking avoiding punishment to the majority who drink
in trains and railway premises anywhere in the sensibly, and preventing deaths and crime which
country. The ban has been a failure. One can see result from the illegal bootlegging industry.
smokers standing near the doors and toilets polluting The steps suggested above are based on the
the air with impunity. understanding that there are limits to state action. A
A sensible approach to the problem would have state represents the will of the people. It cannot
built on the successful model of anti-smoking confront and go against its own people. A state can
campaign based on education, persuasion and only act as a catalyst for social reforms that seek to
creating a positive social environment. As a first modify the will of the people, inevitably a slow
step, advertisement and publicity of alcohol and all process that requires patience and perseverance.
alcohol based products should be prohibited. It needs no expert knowledge but good old
Educating the public about bad effects of alcohol common sense to realise that a slow and steady
should receive the priority of the Governments. Help approach is likely to work much better than the
may be taken in this regard from media, advertising impractical sledgehammer approach of total ban on
agencies, social organisations etc. A very strict view manufacture and sale of alcohol. Let us pray that the
should also be taken of drunken driving, similar to guardians of law abide by common sense and not
the ban on mobile phones while driving. enforcing military rule.
Primary preventive strategies to reduce overall
alcohol consumption in the population, should be
The author is a practising Chartered Accountant
w the strict enforcement of laws on licensing and on

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