Bihar is now a dry state, joining three other Indian states in enforcing a total ban. The reason, according to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is to curb incidents of domestic
violence and broken homes. Perhaps Kumar hasn’t yet read the 2014 report by the World Health Organisation, which showed that around 50 percent of all alcohol consumed in India is unrecorded, doesn’t get taxed and is more than likely part of a counterfeit activity. There is no doubt that intoxicants and the rising cases of domestic violence are linked. But there are also better ways to deal with this than just lay down a blanket ban on the legal sale of alcohol. There is no controlling the black market.
Take Gujarat for instance. Prohibition in the state has been
in existence since May 1960, when the state was formed. Yet,
you can order alcohol over the phone. No amount of government
force has managed to curb the sale of alcohol there for
decades. The Bihar government is losing around Rs 5000 crore
in revenue from this ban, and perhaps they can deal with it.
But they have yet to deal with the implications of spurious liquor.
That may not be as easy as they imagined.
