For a national liquor policy

THE AIDWA is the first national women's organisation to call for the formulation of a national policy on liquor. The past decade has seen an intensification of women's movements, both spontaneous and organised, against the impact of habitual drinking on families, incomes, health and the physical security of women and children. Some of these protests have registered a measure of success - as in Andhra Pradesh, where an anti-liquor movement forced the State government to enforce prohibition for a time. In other regions, too, such movements have resulted in the forced closure of liquor vends. However, such gains have been transitory at best, as they have not been backed by a sustained and informed national campaign against alcohol abuse.

Recognising the importance of this issue in a country where alcohol abuse has become a serious social problem, the 7th AIDWA conference identified a tentative set of issues that could frame a national policy. "Towards a National Liquor Policy for India" was one of the seven commission papers presented at the conference. The paper has argued for a national policy based on strong regulatory official measures combined with a campaign of public action to enforce alcohol consumption guidelines.

AIDWA is opposed to the demand for total prohibition, which it believes is unimplementable. Experience has shown that prohibition results in an uncontrollable black market in liquor, the growth of liquor mafias, an increase in illicit brewing, and so on. Besides, such a demand can put those dependent on the industry, like toddy tappers, out of work. Alcohol consumption is also part of the cultural traditions of several communities.

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 on the increase. For persons aged 15 and above, this increased by 106.67 per cent between 1970-72 and 1994-96. The 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 the majority of committed drinkers are poor in a country with economic deprivation, nutritional deficiencies and unsafe work and physical environments and without organised support systems like counselling and de-addition centres.

The alcohol industry in India comprises an Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) category, a country liquor segment, and an illicit liquor category. The first segment involves large industrial houses and accounts for half the total liquor consumed. Arrack, desi sharab and toddy fall in the second category. Their production is believed to be double that of IMFL. Illicit liquor is manufactured clandestinely in small units and, because it is cheap, finds a ready market amongst the poor.

THE alcohol industry generates an estimated Rs.16,000 crores a year. The policy of granting licences for liquor vends by States has been so generous that there are more liquor vends than schools and public health centres in many of these States. In those States, like Kerala, where the United Democratic Front (UDF) government has banned arrack, the impact of this policy has been nullified by the indiscriminate granting of licences for liquor vends selling a cheaper variety of IMFL. Kerala has the highest per capita consumption rate of alcohol at 8.3 litres a year, followed by Punjab, at 7.9 litres.

The conference demanded government regulation of wholesale and retail trade in liquor, strict limitations on the number of licences for liquor vends, permission to vends to function only between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., closure of the vends over the weekend, increase taxation on the industry, enforcement of a minimum age for legal access to liquor, and the launch of an aggressive anti-alcohol abuse campaign.