Advanc’edge MBA / September 2003
GD Issue
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Alcohol Prohibition in India
A Success or a Failure?
– Gaurang Shah
The Legal Position Alcohol prohibition is under the control of each state and the central government has little control over it except on customs duties for imported alcohol. Each state has full control of alcohol legislation, state excise duty rates and the organisation (control and records of movement) of production and sale of alcohol. There is thus significant variation in prohibition across states and over time within states. Three Degrees of Prohibition Prohibition legislation is more or less consistent in its mandate across states and over time. There are three main types of prohibition policy: 4 Complete prohibition of production and consumption; 4 Partial prohibition where one or more type of liquor (usually arrack) is prohibited; and 4 Dry days where consumption is prohibited for certain days of the week or month. It is interesting to note that Gujarat – the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi – is also the only state to have had complete prohibition since Independence. In the last two decades, complete prohibition policies have been concentrated in the North Eastern states where there is a high incidence of alcohol and substance abuse and strong anti-liquor lobby groups.
Partial prohibition (of arrack) has been the main policy choice of the Southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh where much country liquor is distilled. In fact, prohibition legislation across most states is very similar in terms of its extent and the penalties it imposes on the production and consumption of prohibited liquor items. In addition to complete prohibition, some states in some periods have enacted prohibition of selected alcohol items, notably arrack. Prohibition over the past 50 years The use of prohibition in India has a long history. Gujarat, declared prohibition soon after the British left and has stuck to this policy ever since. Post independence, in the 1950s, the prohibition movement grew from the emphasis placed on abstinence by Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our Nation – an ideology that still underlies much of alcohol policy in the contemporary period. By the mid 1960s this trend had stemmed with several states lifting prohibition orders until the 1970s when prohibition did not exist in any state except Gujarat. More recently, however, prohibition became a major vote winner in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. Since trade liberalisation in 1992/93, controls on imports of foreign FMCG (including alcohol) and consumer durables were progressively relaxed, the central and state government attitudes to alcohol changed dramatically.
The Essay on Alcoholic Beverages Prohibition Doc Alcohol
The 20 th century saw the dawn of the progressive movement. In addition to their sometimes-radical views on institutional reform the group also advocated prohibition, or the outlawing of alcoholic beverages. The success of this movement is based upon many factors. The strength and commitment of its leaders was a big part of it. Prohibition proved to have a negative effect on society rather than ...
Gradually previous restrictions on consumption and production moved on to be more relaxed. At the same time social taboos associated with consumption within the urban middle-class decreased dramatically. What was earlier considered to be an unforgivable vice was slowly becoming socially acceptable and even a virtue in some cases. Evils of Alcohol The prohibitionists have focused on the harmful effects of alcohol. Pro-ban lobby quotes medical reports and the anti-ban lobby pleads on using lawyers who are paid obscene sums of money. In the midst of all this heat and fury, the real issues seem to have dissipated. There is no doubt that alcohol (or any tobacco product) is harmful to health. None other
Advanc’edge MBA / September 2003
GD Issue
than handsomely paid lawyers can truly defend alcohol. Incidentally alcohol abuse is one of the main killers of young men in India today. But its real impact perpetrates further on the social and family dynamics shaking the very foundations on which our communities are based. No one can quarrel with the broad aims of total prohibition — to make sure that all citizens remain sober at all times, so no one gets drunk, or becomes unruly; husbands stop beating their wives, work productively, raise happy families, tell bedtime stories to their children and help out with the washingJ. alcohol consumption is sex specific: most alcohol drinkers are men and quite naturally, the opposite sex; has identified alcoholism in their families as being a potentially preventable cause of poverty and abuse. Domestic violence and an exacerbation o f poverty have made alcohol misuse the single most important problem for women in India. A recent study in Goa showed that women attending primary care clinics were more likely to cite a drinking relative as a key problem in their homes, problems with making ends meet and to suffer from a depressive or anxiety disorder. Alcohol misuse has become such an enormous problem that it is now one of the main issues on which elections are being fought and won. Women’s Movements Over the past 20 years women have become an increasingly potent electoral force. Women’s NGOs and the current trend of Network Marketing have successfully mobilised millions of women to become financially independent. Opportunistic politicians, who identified them as a vote bank, quickly capitalised on this trend. Political parties of all hues have thrown caution and hindsight to the winds and made prohibition their prime electoral promise. The Telegu Desam party used this ploy to bag 224 out of 294 seats in Andhra Pradesh. Subsequently, the party, which put prohibition at the top of its agenda, won the elections in
The Essay on United State Prohibition Alcohol States
Prohibition. Prohibition refers to laws that were implemented to prevent the drinking of alcoholic beverages. The laws forbid the manufacture, sale, or transportation of such beverages. Alcoholic beverages include beer, gin, rum, vodka, whiskey, and wine. In the United States, prohibition became so popular in the early 1900's that, in 1920, a prohibition amendment was added to the U. S. ...
Read on …………………………….. Haryana with a large majority. However, this happens to be just another populist vote taking and shortsighted policy. It initiated massive problems for the government treasuries and caused further hardships for the poor by increasing unemployment. State excise raised from potable alcohol is approximately 20-25% of state-revenue. Take the case of Andhra Pradesh. When alcohol breweries were shut, it resulted in the loss of hundreds of legitimate jobs. The state went virtually bankrupt. The government attempted to counter the budgetary deficit by raising taxes and the costs of earlier subsidised rice, the staple food of millions of Indians. Despite this, the deficit continued to spiral out of control reaching a third of the annual budget outlay. Finally, the Reserve Bank of India threatened to withdraw the overdraft facility to the state. The government then relented and introduced the AP Prohibition Act 1997, which effectively removed prohibition in favour of a more regulated alcohol retailing system. The experience of Haryana is the most striking example where, after two and a half years of complete prohibition between 1996 and 1998, the state treasury went practically bankrupt.
The Essay on Should the Government ban smoking
The hazards of smoking have become very clear in the last few years and the public has started working towards changing societal norms associated with smoking. Awareness about second hand smoking has also risen considerably and efforts are being made to protect residents from it. However, communities alone cannot bring such a drastic change. The government needs to play a key role in protecting ...
The end result is that at present there are only 7 states left with complete prohibition in force and 3 with bans on production and consumption of arrack. The Actual Experience The issue then is, not whether alcohol should be consumed or not but rather the feasibility of imposing a ban. Has prohibition made any difference to the real problem – drinking among men? There is a long history of banning, prohibiting or restricting the sale and consumption of products harmful to human beings. Prohibition on liquor was tried in USA in the first quarter of last century. It is now an accepted fact that prohibition has failed miserably wherever it has been tried. Prohibition in USA led to the rise of mafia that soon began to challenge the legitimate government. During the days of prohibition, honeymooning American couples went to hotels at the Niagara Falls. Reason: On the other side of the river was Canada,
Advanc’edge MBA / September 2003
GD Issue
where they could buy all the alcohol they wanted openly. Canada was paradise simply because it had no prohibition. Just as during late 1950’s, Morarji Desai’s term of Chief Minister of Bombay, Daman, only a few hours’ drive from Bombay, had become a thriving tourist centre. In those days, Daman was Portuguese territory and thus, for prohibition-afflicted Bombay, a paradise. If Gujarat is anything to go by, prohibition is a complete failure. Not only is alcohol readily available to the rich, but also the poor now have to resort to illegal brews, with a consequent rise in criminal activity and deaths from methanol poisoning. Prohibition in India is the Emperor’s Clothes, by another name, a great pretence. Police inspectors and DCPs who ordered raids on hotels and residences while drink parties were in progress because they had not been paid hefty haftas despite having paid licence fees. Policemen who do not themselves drink are rare. Many of the ministers of states, which still have prohibition, are themselves drinkers, and simply having one of them at your party is an insurance against being raided. The Unintended Consequences Let us also look at the machinery, supposed to enforce the ban.
The Essay on Should alcohol advertising be banned
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, adjudicator and fellow debaters. My name is Ben Tennyson and I am the second speaker of the Affirmative team. Our topic for today is that should alcohol advertising be banned? We the affirmative believe this statement and will leave you with no doubt that alcohol advertising should be banned. Rebuttal. Our first speaker talked to you about how…Today I will be ...
In states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, a large number of cabinet ministers are addicted to alcohol. A significantly large number (by some estimates it is a majority) of policemen, lawyers, court officials and government employees are seen with swollen eyes and puffed faces. Almost every government office has such people in abundance. Is it not ridiculous to imagine that such hopeless addicts will be able to prevent others from falling prey to the habit? Even in India, the liquor trade has slowly but steadily moved from the hands of normal businessmen to the clutches of organised criminals in every state where prohibition was tried. The underworld has discovered a perennial source of easy money. Certain specific communities who work hand in glove with the underworld now control most of the liquor trade. The law enforcing machinery has also found it a lucrative opportunity where they make huge piles of money by just looking the other way. Development of an unholy nexus between the
Read on …………………………….. underworld and politicians, bureaucrats and police officers has been the result. It is this nexus that has been most vehemently opposing lifting of prohibition in Gujarat. Isn’t it ironical that women’s movements have been indirectly supporting this unholy nexus? Under prohibition, an average consumer is put through much more hardship and pays much more for a bottle of liquor. Normally, liquor contributes the maximum revenue to state exchequer. Government earns no revenue from the sale of liquor. The revenue amount (actually a higher amount) now flows to the mafia and its patrons in the state machinery. In other words, prohibition helps growth of crime and weakens the legitimate institutions of the state. It has been demonstrated time and again that prohibition does not lead to a substantial reduction in alcohol consumption. In recent years Haryana experimented with prohibition. The experiment was an utter failure. After the lifting of prohibition in Haryana, liquor consumption has increased to a level higher than that of pre-prohibition days. Instead of making people give up drinking alcohol or even encouraging temperance, it somehow has the opposite effect. In a social order in which everyone who takes a drink becomes a criminal, even normally wellbehaved citizens lose all respect for the law. Prohibition opens up a whole new Pandora’s box of evils and absurdities. What does not work? If prohibition legislation is no answer to alcohol abuse, will price control work? Denmark tried to ensure this by making alcohol too expensive for the man in the street. But then the man in the street is also a born survivor, never to be deterred by artificial barriers. So the Danes daily go
The Essay on Effects Of Alcohol Web Drinking Alcoholic
Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is known as alcohol. It is made by fermenting starch or sugar into different fruits and grains. Beer (usually about 5% alcohol), wine (usually 12 to 15% alcohol), and hard liquor (which is about 45% alcohol), are alcoholic beverages that are made by fermentation and distillation (1). Alcohol can lead to serious physical damage in all systems of the body, the most serious in ...
Advanc’edge MBA / September 2003
GD Issue
on what are called ‘Spirit Ships’, which, within forty minutes take them out into international waters, and there, of course, all drinks and cigarettes are duty free. What may work? Contrast the failures of experiments in prohibition with the successes of anti-smoking campaign carried out across the world for the past three decades. Four decades back, smoking was fashionable, cool and the in-thing. Almost every movie whether made in Hollywood or Bollywood showed the main lead male star smoking. Things have changed almost completely for the smokers. Films no longer show the hero with a cigarette on his lips. Smokers are not welcome at most social gatherings. A smoker has to typically hide himself in a toilet or go out into the street to have a puff. Sales of cigarette companies have been falling in most countries across the world. Three decades ago more than half the students on the campuses smoked. Now this figure is less than ten per cent. All this has been achieved without any punitive measures or restrictions on manufacture, sale or consumption of cigarettes. In fact, the setbacks in the anti-smoking campaign have been in only those areas where harsh prohibitive measures were attempted.
The Essay on Consuming Alcohol And Smoking
Alcohol misuse and smoking are major public health problems, placing a heavy burden on society, and affecting a large number of individuals of all ages. Contrary to what many people believe, alcohol, as one of the many health problems, is not a stimulant. It is a depressant. This is why drinking too much often leads to impaired judgment, slurring of the speech, a tendency to violent behavior and ...
An example is the recent ban, following Supreme Court directives, on smoking in trains and railway premises anywhere in the country. The ban has been a failure. One can see smokers standing near the doors and toilets polluting the air with impunity. A sensible approach to the problem would have built on the successful model of anti-smoking campaign based on education, persuasion and creating a positive social environment. As a first step, advertisement and publicity of alcohol and all alcohol based products should be prohibited. Educating the public about bad effects of alcohol should receive the priority of the Governments. Help may be taken in this regard from media, advertising agencies, social organisations etc. A very strict view should also be taken of drunken driving, similar to the ban on mobile phones while driving. Primary preventive strategies to reduce overall alcohol consumption in the population, should be w the strict enforcement of laws on licensing and on
Read on …………………………….. drinking and driving, and w the provision of peer education on drinking behaviour in colleges and schools. Secondary prevention would enable the reduction of the effects of problem drinking post problem identification in an individual. Counsellors could work with other organisations, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and the Indian Psychiatric Association, in a united campaign to help families affected by problem drinking. The policy of prohibition is at odds with an essential ingredient of any community health programme namely, its participatory approach. By identifying drinking in men as the problem, the current approach alienates and excludes them from participating in the solution. Bar owners and alcohol manufacturers, usually men, see their livelihood destroyed and, instead of empathising with women, feel threatened. Women’s efforts in their vociferous support for prohibition are admirable, but women’s groups should remember that it would always be the poor who will suffer due to prohibition. A community based, participatory public health model to tackle alcohol misuse is the only way to reduce the negative impact of problem drinking while safeguarding the economic benefits of alcohol, avoiding punishment to the majority who drink sensibly, and preventing deaths and crime which result from the illegal bootlegging industry.
The steps suggested above are based on the understanding that there are limits to state action. A state represents the will of the people. It cannot confront and go against its own people. A state can only act as a catalyst for social reforms that seek to modify the will of the people, inevitably a slow process that requires patience and perseverance. It needs no expert knowledge but good old common sense to realise that a slow and steady approach is likely to work much better than the impractical sledgehammer approach of total ban on manufacture and sale of alcohol. Let us pray that the guardians of law abide by common sense and not enforcing military rule. The author is a practising Chartered Accountant
