The Hindu : National : National liquor policy demanded

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2004

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National

National liquor policy demanded

By Parvathi Menon

BHUBANESWAR, NOV. 22. Taking note of the "huge, spontaneous protests, and organised movements" by women all over India against the increase in habitual alcohol consumption and its devastating impact on incomes, families and the status of women, the recently held Seventh Conference of the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) has demanded a comprehensive national liquor policy.

It is the first national women's organisation to make this demand. Such a policy must comprise a strong regulatory regime that reverses the present approach, which has tacitly encouraged habitual liquor consumption through indiscriminate grant of licences for vends. This must be combined with a strong public education campaign against alcohol abuse, a leading cause of violence against women and children.

"Towards a National Liquor Policy for India" is one of seven commission papers the recommendations of which the conference adopted. Its point of departure from the position of many other women's organisations is that it does not support total prohibition, a demand it believes will result in a huge black market in liquor, the growth of a liquor mafia, the increase in illicit brewing, effects that will be counter-productive in fighting the social impact of alcohol abuse.

Consumption increasing

The report notes that according to the Global Status on Alcohol (World Health Organisation, 1999), although India has one of the lowest per capita alcohol consumption rates in the world, it is rapidly increasing. For persons aged 15 and above, this has increased by 106.67 per cent between 1970-72 and 1994-96. This study says that 15-20 per cent of absenteeism, 40 per cent of accidents at workplaces, and 25 per cent of road accidents are alcohol-related.

Its impact is exacerbated by the fact that a majority of committed drinkers are poor in a country where there is economic deprivation, the prevalence of disease and nutritional deficiencies, unsafe work and physical environments, and the absence of organised support systems such as counselling and de-addiction centres.

The alcohol industry generates an estimated Rs. 16,000 crores a year. The policy of granting licences for vends by states has been so generous that there are more such vends than schools and public health centres in many states.

In States such as Kerala, where the United Democratic Front Government has banned arrack, the impact of this policy has been nullified by the indiscriminate granting of licences for vends selling a cheaper variety of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).

Kerala has the highest per capita alcohol consumption rate followed by Punjab.

Government regulation

The conference has demanded Government regulation of wholesale and retail trade in liquor, strict limitations on the number of licences granted, an increase in taxes on liquor production, a minimum age for legal access to liquor, and an aggressive official anti-alcohol abuse initiative through advertising and other campaigns.

As excise is a state subject, and each state has its own regulatory mechanisms and ways of granting licences for vends, the AIDWA will conduct state-level surveys to understand the structure of the alcohol industry, to plan specific demands and interventions.

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