Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is expected to release a survey report on the “positive impacts” of prohibition in the state, on Sunday.
Officials told The Hindu that the report, prepared by the state’s Women Development Corporation with technical assistance from the Development Management Institute, has broadly underlined the impact of prohibition as incidents of physical violence against women drastically coming down.
“It has also led to behavioural improvement among alcoholics, especially in rural areas,” said one official, adding that the survey samples were collected from Purnia, Samastipur, Nawada, Kaimur and West Champaran districts, covering all the four regions of the state. A total of 2,368 individuals, including 1,001 women, 242 men and 647 adolescent girls were surveyed to prepare the report.
“The percentage of liquor addicts who were abusive has come down from 67 to just nine. Similarly, the cases of creating nuisance in the neighbourhood too has come down from 29 to a meagre 3%,” the official said. But the most striking feature of the report, the official said, was that the percentage of rural women subjected to physical violence had dropped from 54 to just five.
